Hero, I am Not
by Soleneus
Summary: The first time I ever tried to be a hero, I got shot in the head. The next time I woke, the first thought that crossed my mind, after 'Why am I waking up' was 'Why are those women blue' A self-insert that's different from my usual fare. Pairings are a toss-up.
1. Think Tank Tragedy

I never wanted to be a hero. Sure, when I was a kid, being a firefighter or a cop or a superhero seemed like obvious career choices. Who wouldn't want to save people? Arrest the bad guys? Be revered from every corner of the world for keeping people safe?

Reality has a hard way of hitting the naïve right in the hopes and dreams, violently shattering perceptions of the world you think you know and replacing it with something Lovecraftian in content.

It turns a happy young boy, fresh out of a move across country, naïve and ready to make friends into the sarcastic, paranoid pseudo-sociopath I am now. I care about people, don't get me wrong, and I care about people's feelings, but violence has always held a certain symphony for me. A song that beats in the heart and sings in the blood, the thirst to spill blood and revel in the ending of life. Not exactly something to bring up at a family reunion.

I am talking about me. Of course I'm talking about me. Who else would?

I never wanted to be a hero. It was never something that I wanted to do. I much preferred staying inside, reading books and letting my imagination do the traveling. And after I found the internet, that was what I preferred. There was so much I could learn at my fingertips, all it would take is a few taps, and off I could go, awed by what's possible with human ingenuity.

Of course, there was the dark side of such freedom, namely that others also had the same freedom, and instead of adding to it, poisoned it with opinions best left centuries ago when a heart-attack was considered being cursed by a witch.

I read somewhere that, when left unchecked and anonymous, everyone can be an asshole. Without anyone knowing who said what, how could there be any repercussions for being a total dick?

The answer: there aren't. Only the conscience of those who said what they did would feel any guilt, and such a thing seems to have become an entry on the Endangered Species list, along with common sense.

I never wanted to be a hero. And, it turns out, for a perfectly good reason. It is how I ended up here, after all.

Here is a dirty, rank alleyway somewhere in Seattle, late at night, when the moon's risen and then sunk beyond the horizon. Lying on my back in this damn dirty alley, a filthy man with a rusty Berretta pointed at my head, panting from the adrenaline in his blood and the effort of heaving me off my feet and onto my back.

"Why?" He grumbles at me, his hand shaking from nervousness, excitement or something else entirely. "Why'd ya have to go an' be a hero, huh?"

I don't really know, strange homeless man with a gun. I heard a scuffle, a muffled cry of terror, and I investigated. I saw you, holding a woman at gunpoint with a filthy hand over her mouth. And, damn my sensibilities, I couldn't let you just get away without having tried to help.

And what did I get? I got a face-full of dirty fist and then thrown to the ground in a stinky fucking alleyway. Something warm is trailing down the back of my head, and I sincerely hope it's blood, because if it's not, it doesn't really bare thinking about.

Especially with a gun in my face.

I can see on his face that he's still thinking about capping me and taking my wallet, which contains about six bucks in cash and not much else.

But in his eyes, I can see that he's already decided.

Nothing will stop him from pulling that trigger, not even if he died from a brain aneurysm at that very moment. His finger was already tightening over the trigger, the clicks of rusted pieces moving together.

I know what's coming. A nine millimeter slug will blast out of the barrel, cross the distance from hole to head in less than a second and splatter the contents of my think-tank across the stained concrete of this alleyway, just another sticky puddle on the ground for someone to grimace at and step over in passing.

My life doesn't flash before my eyes like I thought it would. I'm glad. I'd rather it didn't.

I do wonder, though. Will I see pearly gates and all my dead relatives? Or will I see a lake of fire and all my other dead relatives? Will I see nothing?

I don't know. It's not like I'd be in a position to tell anyone afterwards.

The pin clicks, clacks, and the crack of powder being ignited is multiplied by the enclosed walls and the proximity to my face into a thunderous roar.

I see the face of the woman I pretty much sacrificed myself for. She's not really beautiful, her face marred with terror and tear tracks will kill anyone's looks, but she's pretty. Wide brown eyes, soft brown hair and cheeks that make me want to go 'awww'.

There's a brief flash, and fleeting moment of pain, like having a band-aid ripped off, and then…

Absolutely nothing.

…

I never wanted to be a hero. The first I time I ever tried, I got shot in the head.

…


	2. Slaver Surprise Saturday

The first thing I felt was cold metal pressed against the middle of my face. That was followed by surprise which grew into shock, and then a growing a sense of numb hysteria.

I peeled open my eyes, my eyelids feeling like someone had sealed them shut with a thin layer of rubber cement.

The first thought that crossed my mind, besides 'Why am I waking up?' was, 'Why are those women blue?'

And then the hysteria kicked in.

_Oh god,_ I thought, _I'm in Heaven. Mom was right._ A few details became more prominent as my vision cleared. _No, wait, they're blue. Fuck. I'm in Hell. Mom was right._

But then I noticed that these blue women didn't have any hair. Instead, they had what looked like rigid tentacles, and paint-like markings that decorated their faces.

I suppose blue may have been a generalization. More like shades of deep blue to purple as opposed to just blue.

They were also staring at me, whispering to each others in low voices in a language that I couldn't make heads or tails of.

They were in a cage that was only about three-or-so feet tall, made of some dark metal that was locked securely. Actually, wait, that was a padlock, an old one at that. Weird.

One those blue women was staring at me intensely. She had slight bags around her eyes, her cheeks a paler blue than the rest of her face, along with purple markings that stretched from a stripe on her chin, across her cheeks and then met in a symmetrical pattern on her forehead.

Something began to creep up my spine, something empty but cold at the same time. It was a realization. A realization that, after spending many long hours thinking about, would make you feel like a short bus was far too long to be safe for the passengers, namely yourself.

She spoke to me, in that strange language that was soft, silky, sibilant and flowed like water. It sounded kind of like the voice I'd imagine a silk pillow would have, as strange as that sounds.

A sharp pain similar to being violently poked in the back of the head radiates around my skull, a pained groan just barely escaping my lips.

"Hey, human." Wait a tic, I understood that. I look back up and see that it is the blue woman who's talking to me. The creeping familiarity strikes me again, harder this time. "How'd you get in that cage?"

"That's a good question," I say, my voice scratchy and low. "Though, I could ask you the same thing."

She smiles slightly, though it's less of a humorous smile and more of a 'yeah, no shit' smile. "Yeah, no shit." See? "Where you from?"

"Earth." 'Where else?' Is what I want to say, but I keep to myself until I know more why there are blue women and why we're in cages. Let it be known that I'm not stupid. _That_ stupid, in any case.

"Ah, so you've been on this crappy shuttle longer than we have." She comments lightly.

I must have been, because the last thing I remember is getting shot. "Seems like it. I don't really remember what happened before this, though. I think I got hit in the back of the head." Yes, lie to the first person/blue woman who talks to you. Seem like a brilliant policy to me.

"Where are we headed?" I ask, prying for information.

One of her purple-paint eyebrows quirks at me, and an amused smirk curls her lips. Also purple, by the way. "The city of Aegohr, on the Salarian colony of Nasurn."

Wait. My thoughts begin to race as certain information begins to click together like puzzle pieces. Salarian. Blue women. She called wherever we are a 'shuttle' not a truck or a plane.

No way. No freaking way is my luck is that good/bad. I need more information.

"Excuse, but what's your name?" I ask lowly. "I can't just call you 'lady'."

The blue lady scoffs gently, like she's mentally flicking herself for not introducing herself. "I'm Tela Vasir, Asari."

Well fuck. That just confirms a few more of my suspicions. I keep it calm, however. "I'm…" Wait, shit. I can't just tell someone I don't know my name. However, if my suspicions are correct, I don't think it will really matter. But, this could also be a chance to start over, make a new life for myself.

Barring the whole 'figment of my imagination' part, of course.

"…Sol."

Tela smirks slightly, but her eyes aren't amused and more understanding. "No last name?" Her voice is just naturally sexy, but I think I can hear an undertone of comfort.

I smile ruefully at her. "Not anymore. I'd shake your hand, but…"

The bars between us fill the silence.

While the awkward air settles, I'm examining the padlocks holding the cages shut. They're old, rusty pieces of crap, and the bars aren't so widespread that I can't reach my hands through.

If I'm right, then these slavers are really bottom-of-the-barrel dregs. I would've expected the locks to be electronic, but I've never been one to question providence.

"Hey, Tela." I whisper, trying to draw her attention.

Her dark blue eyes flick up and meet my own, the question in them loud as if she'd spoken. "What?" Oh wait.

I point at the locks and mime a twisting motion. "I can break these locks. If you can get anyone able to fight, I can get us out of here and we can take over the ship."

Her eyes are questioning, but the asari in the cages around us are tensing, ready for action. "How do you know how to break these locks?" She asks, even though her body is readying itself for action.

The morbid snort escapes me before I can stop it, and I might as well follow through. "Well, this wouldn't be the first time I've had to break out of a cage."

I hate that it's true.

The weakest section of a lock like this is the curves near the top. Metal that's been bent out of shape is the thinnest, and therefore, the easiest to break. All I need to do is push the lock up, set the nearest curve against the bar for leverage, pull the lock itself up to the right angle, push the top down while pulling the bottom back and-

-The corner pops off with little effort, a good chunk of metal falling to the floor with a small clatter, but that's not what I hear. I'm too lost in my thoughts.

That shouldn't have been easy. The other times I've done that, it took a couple of minutes of working the lock into the metal for it snap, but now…it shouldn't have been that easy.

Remember man, bottom of the barrel slavers, bottom of the barrel. Break out the blue women and _then_ worry about locks. Besides, which is more important, freeing hot blue ladies or being stronger than I remember?

Dropping the lock, I push the door to the cage open, wincing as the shriek of rusted metal shatters any kind of silence. Shit, that's going to draw attention. Better be quick.

Rushing over to the cage that holds Tela and kneeling before it, I can't help but glance at her now that I'm close. Our eyes meet as I push the lock up, and hers flick over my shoulder and widen slightly. That can't be good.

And then I feel it. I've only really had the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of my head once before, but the atmosphere is something that can't be forgotten, not so quickly.

"Get up, human!" An odd, gargling voice barks at me, poking me in the back of head roughly. "Put your hands on your head!"

I rise, slowly, bringing my hands up, also slowly. "Now!" It orders, drawing back to poke me once again.

_Now!_

I pivot, bringing one of the hands I raised down on the gunman's wrist, twisting and pushing back, with a muffled crack as his wrist dislocates. I shove his arm back and up, not only pointing the gun away from myself but flipping him over.

This whole thing has been so slow, like time had decided to become jell-o and we were wading through it. I can see the multiple eyes on this brown thing's face widening in pain and shock as his body decides to flip his ass over without consent. His feet hit first, followed by his legs and his back, and as he's hitting the ground, I pull my hand back, clenching my fingers into a fist, and as his head is just meeting the ground, my fist pushes through this time jell-o and slams the back of his head into the ground.

I blink, and now I'm rising to my feet, bringing up my hands to my head. "Now!" He barks impatiently.

I move, spinning away from his poke and grab his wrist and twist, pushing his arm up and back and flipping him over. As his body hit's the ground, my fist's already there, driving the back his head and oddly squishy face into the unforgiving metal floor with small wet crunch.

I freeze. What the hell was that? I saw what I could do before I did it, and then I actually did it.

…

That was fucking awesome! I should've introduced myself as Chuck!

…Right, blue women in cages. I kneel, push the lock up and twist it in two, pulling open the cage and setting four asari free, including Tela.

I repeat the process on two other cages, trying to avoid staring too blatantly at the blue beauties. I can see something in their eyes. My ego says it's awe, but the realist part of me breaks my ego's neck and says they're simply impressed. I'm inclined to agree with my realistic side.

And now it's just me, a human male with twelve asari. Tela grabs the batarian's crappy pistol ands scoffs at the condition of the weapon before stripping the magnetic holster and strapping it onto her hip, collapsing the pistol and holstering it.

Now that they're not crouched in cages, I can see more of their bodies, which sounds more lecherous than I intended. I mean that I scanned their bodies…alright, that doesn't work either.

Fuck it.

Now that they weren't crouched in filthy cages, I could see that the bodies of these asari were different, forgoing the obvious 'they are blue'.

Under the blue and purple skin of these women were lean, tightly wound muscles that gave them an alluring air of beauty and deadliness, similar to that of a tiger. Lithe and beautiful, but deadly all the same.

Their skin is various shades of blue and purple, having a similar appearance to that of very small scales. Most had dark blue eyes, though more than a few had purple or black.

Their stances, necks stiff but on a swivel, backs straight with confidence, slightly bent legs ready to lunge, and eyes that spoke of lethality and combat-readiness.

These were the women, who fought for the right to kill or be killed, who took what they needed and gathered what they wanted, ready for anything at a moment's notice, the ones to who sex was like combat, love was an inferno and combat was playtime.

All in all, the perfect women.

Oh yeah. Daddy sees, and Daddy_ likes._

This told me that these weren't normal everyday asari, but commandos in an operation.

"I don't think I need to ask, given the batarian corpse on the floor, but…" Tela started dryly, motioning to the growing pool of dark-green/brown blood around the brown-skinned alien. "Can you take care of yourself?"

I nod absently, kicking the corpse over to search through the pockets, finding what I was searching for. "Aha! A knife!" Holding the blade aloft, I frowned as I got a good look at it. "A very shitty knife…"

Tela cocks an eyebrow at me, looking amused. "So you prefer knives?"

"Meh," I shrug, twirling the rusty knife, "Where I come from, you learn how to use a weapon or you get beat up."

The purple-painted asari huffs slightly but shakes her head. "Alright, from what I've been able to see during transport, there are five more crew members and the captain left aboard. The shuttle's not very big, so watch your corners, we want to keep the element of surprise for as long as we can. Also-"

As she spoke, my ears were listening to her but my mind was searching the room, watching carefully. A shadow slipped behind her, but no one but myself seemed to notice. Narrowing my eyes on it, I could see something off about this shadow. It had four eyes. Also, it was not a shadow.

Before I could speak a word of warning, Tela spun around, her body lighting up with whorls of blue energy. An orb of azure light sprang from her outstretched hand in the blink of an eye and slammed into the batarian's head with an odd _boing_ sound. The force of that technique snapped his head back like a freakin' Pez dispenser, the snaps and crunches that echoed are just cringe-worthy.

"-We need to catch them off guard. This might be our only chance to find out where this slave ring leads." The asari finished, her attitude screaming 'aint a thang', despite the fact she just snapped a guy's neck with a simple gesture.

We filed quietly out of the door, one of the asari policing the other guy's pistol as we went. Looking around the ship, I found that my previous estimate of these slavers being the bottom of the barrel was _grossly_ understated. Bottom of the barrel might've been too kind.

Let's just say that rust was the prevalent color. Walking across the floor was an effort in futility, as it seemed most of the ground was ready and willing to snap at the slightest provocation. However, the rest of the ship seemed to be exactly the same, so the creaking of the floor didn't alarm anyone.

Up ahead is a staircase, with a door at the end. The door slides open, and out steps a sort of amphibian-looking humanoid with two horn-like appendages on the head and really wide eyes.

On the other side of the stairway, Tela gets my attention with a wave. And she start making gestures that I don't understand.

At my confused look, she rolls her eyes and mouths, 'Kill him.'

Oh. Whoops.

I lean out as he passes by, looping my left arm around his neck and bringing my right with the knife up and drive into his eyes. It should have been a clean kill barring the eye-stabbing, except that it wasn't because his fucking eye popped like a balloon filled with jell-o.

His eye juice squirts all over my damn hands and my first reaction is to squeal like a girl, but I manage to reign it in admirably to a very masculine grunt of surprise. In my panic, I drop the body, the thud as it hits the ground somehow very loud.

"Tessir? Something happen?" Another gargling voice asks as the door opens again.

Panicking, the first to come to mind comes out of my mouth. "I just tripped on the stairs. Be careful coming down."

The batarian scoffs and shakes his head. "Only a squishy Salarian would trip over some damn stairs."

He continues down the stairs, and as he's halfway down, I lean out and flick the knife I retrieved from the body into his right knee, with his left foot coming down from a step. He grunts in surprise as his leg buckles and he rolls down the stairs, smacking into every step with a pained sound.

He hits the ground and Tela's already there, kicking him across the face and snapping his neck.

As the asari commando's creep up the stairs, I am unable to resist a snappy one-liner as I yank my knife from the corpse's knee. "I warned you about stairs, bro."

After I make my way up the stairs, I'm not really shocked to see the commandos have a few more corpses, what I assume are the other slavers. They're dead on the ground, and the asari have a few more pistols.

The only person not dead or an asari is a salarian in a medical outfit, cowering next to a console. There's also a wooden crate next to him, but I can't tell what's in it other than that it's valuable, given the way the salarian is hugging it.

"Wow," I comment, not bothering to sound surprised. "You guys really didn't need my help. Not a surprise, considering you're commandos."

The commandos in question were already rifling through the computers and downloading information onto glowing orange gauntlets. Tela smirks at me, an expression I feel I will see a lot of in the future. "And how did you know we're commandos?" She asks, almost teasingly.

I shrug. "Meh. Most recently kidnapped women don't look ready or strong enough to break someone in half."

The asari's eyes flick over my shoulder, and she goes for her gun as a burly arm wraps around my throat and pulls me back, very nearly crushing my windpipe. I can feel cool metal pressing against my head. The barrel's wider than a pistol, and from what I can tell it's longer as well…

It's shotgun. Pressed against my temple.

Fuck.

"Put down your guns or the human gets it!" It's a deep, gargling voice, which mean it's a batarian. A race that seems to hate humans very much.

I can Tela's eyes, and they're apologetic, but firm. I'm a human they just met, and killing the captain of the ship would well be worth my life.

To them, anyway. But not to me.

I'll have to free myself, because they'd rather just shoot both of us, it seems.

Geh…Well, no one ever got anything done without trying, I guess.

I go limp in the batarian's arms, and he instinctively loosens his grip on my throat. Using that, I pushes my self forward, and just as his arm is pulling me back, I rush back, slamming the back of my head into what I hope is something important. He lets go, and I dash forward, evading his first strike and not so much the second.

The barrel of his shotgun cracks against my head, and suddenly I can taste colors. The world blurs. Something that might have been a red blur hits something, and heat and force throw me onto my back, and my blurry vision is filled with the four eyes and the genetically-mustached face of the batarian captain.

From what I can see, he has little to no neck, though there might be something underneath the bulge of muscles that he calls a chin/son.

"If I die, at least I'll be happy knowing I killed at least one human before I went!" He snarls, pointed teeth bared in rage.

I remember reading somewhere that messing with a batarian's eyes is like popping the head plate off of a Krogan. It might save my life, or it might get me a bellyful of mass accelerated metal.

Oh well. At least I'll have tried.

I will have also used an ironic one-liner

"We'll see about that!" I manage to gasp around the mitt chocking the life out of me. He growls, and then I use all four of my fingers and poke him in the eyes.

He releases a surprisingly girly scream and hurls me a rather impressive distance across the cockpit and into the wooden crate. The crate breaks easily, and so do the squishy packets inside.

Distantly, I hear the Salarian scream out, "My medi-gel!" along with the _pew-pew_ sound of pistols being fired. And then, a wave of goo covers my head and I fall out of consciousness.

…

**A/N: This is basically a rewrite of one of my first stories, a Mass Effect Self-Insert that had potential but really wasn't all that good, partly because of my new-ness and my love of over-powered and unrealistically awesome characters.**

**READ THIS: The narrative may seem to jump around a little bit, and that is on purpose. The purpose of this fic is to give you the viewer a peek into my mind, and this is how I think, no joke, no bullshit.**

**ON MY OTHER STORIES: all stuff's been happening. Most of the new chapters have been started, and the next chapter for JotWE is most of the way done.**

**Stay awesome.**

**~Soleneus **


	3. Medical Consequences

White. White was the first thing I saw, even through half-closed eyes. I could hear the murmur of voices barely rising over the soothing sound of trickling water, broken occasionally by high-pitched humming.

I found myself lying on a floor made of what looked like white metal. The sky above me was blue with white clouds, but also held the faux look of a hologram. The fact that I curved up and away only made it more fake.

Looking around, I can see that I'm in the Presidium, on the Citadel. Seeing this, only pushes one thought further into the forefront of my mind.

_I'm in another universe._

I knew, when I first woke up, that I was not in the situation I remembered (dirty alley, dirty hobo and bullet to the brain), but the blue women, Asari, clued me in to where I was, even if, on some level, I didn't want to know.

I was in Mass Effect.

…

Sweet.

Had anyone looked my way, they would have seen a man about six foot, wearing a charcoal sweater, black pants and white shoes dancing like a lunatic.

Thankfully, no one did.

Well, thankfully, no one did, but they really should have. My flailing should have drawn _some_ attention, but oddly didn't. Even the people walking by, few as they were, didn't so much as glance in my direction.

This was odd.

A Turian walking by with his eyes glued to the omni-tool on his left hand completely ignored me when I waved my hand in front of his face.

Looking across the water, I saw a group of three people, two humans and a Turian, walking together and chatting. Looking around, I found an empty bottle on the bench, the dregs of the bright-orange beverage in the bottom. I could barely read the characters, but I'm not sure I got it right. "Tupari…" I muttered absently to myself. "Odd name for a sports drink."

I took aim, cocked my arm back, and let loose the bottle. As it sailed across the water, it hit me that throwing a bottle in front of someone was probably a bad idea.

I was proven right when I missed. In a fashion.

The bottle didn't land in front of the group, instead, bouncing off of the blond man's head. The Turian in the blue armor with the blue and black face-paint scanned for the perpetrator (myself) and the brunette woman knelt by the man's side, her cry of surprise sounding out clearly across the Presidium. "Ian!"

Oh shit. I may have just killed someone on accident.

I dove onto the bench, hiding away from the people whose friend I may have just killed.

As I cowered in manly fashion, something about that blond struck me as familiar, but what?

I peeked up over the lip of the bench and looked at them again. That's right! I have that same jacket.

The world suddenly blurred, dripping in globs like runny paint on a plastic canvas, and suddenly, I was in a room. There was a long desk with a few orange screens with data scrolling across them, with a white bed behind it and a few chairs. The window looked out into the stars, and the wall had an orange design that looked like a rhombus or something split in half.

I was standing in front of the desk with my arms folded over my chest. I could feel the playful smirk on my face, directed to the woman in front of me.

She had a long raven hair that fell messily about her shoulders, framing a pale face with a pair of ice-blue eyes set into it. The ice eyes were offset by the warm smile on her face, and her body-language was playful.

Speaking of bodies, I noticed that she had a _very_ nice one, one that you comment on in an English accent. _Noice!_

A good-sized chest, not an ounce of fat to be had anywhere other than the breasts, hips and rear, with long legs, all clad in a white-and-black suit that was very snug.

She stood from her seat and strutted around it, pushing me down into the chair behind me, before she sat in my lap, one arm over my shoulders and the other around my neck. She was pretty much sitting on me, and I could feel her firm rear pressing into my lap and the also firm but softer chest pressing against my own, less softer and more manly chest.

Awesome.

But also not awesome, because I couldn't control my body. My arms came up, one resting on her legs, the other curling around her back and resting on her stomach. The problem is, I didn't do that. My body was moving by itself. I couldn't even speak.

Miranda Lawson was in my lap, and I didn't even know why.

"Do you remember the first time we met?" She said softly, staring into my eyes.

My body spoke. "Of course I do," I said jokingly, "How could I forget you unloading two rounds into my chest, hip-tossing me to the ground and then shoving your pistol underneath my chin?"

To my surprise, she actually looked abashed. "I said I was sorry about that." Miranda mumbled with a pout.

Fuck me, what the hell is going on?! How the hell is fucking Miranda Lawson, of all people, apologizing to me?

My body chuckled. "I still haven't forgiven you for that, you know. You still owe me."

She grinned, _fucking grinned_, bringing the hand on my neck up to cup one of my cheeks. "Well then, I suppose I should make my usual payment then?"

She pulled down and leaned up, her red lips puckering slightly, and suddenly, I felt velvet caging my lips, the soft pressure shooting thrills down my spine.

And the world blurred again.

Multi-colored lights shined into my eyes, the pounding of drums thundered in my head people yelled and screamed and shouted. I only caught snatches of conversation as they flowed around me.

"_I did it for you! To protect you!"_

"_You don't have to run away any more! We're going-"_

"_Open fire! Bring that bastard down!"_

"_-Hit the deck!"_

"_I'll destroy you!"_

"_What the hell is that thing?!"_

"_-don't die! Don't you dare die on me, you bastard! I'll never forgive you if you die!"_

"_**I am assuming direct control of this platform."**_

"_**This hurts you."**_

"_This hurts you!"_

…

The world spun back into place, and I found myself on a dance floor. Light pulsed with beat and people writhed and flailed together.

Looking around, I found a woman in a snug blue number dancing with a quarian woman in a blue and yellow suit. My body moved on it's own again, turning to face a man with scruffy beard and a cap that had 'SR-2' on it, wearing standard Alliance fatigues. "C'mon Joker, you have to dance at one point. Lia isn't going to wait around forever."

He scoffed. "You think I don't know that? I've been trying to work up the courage to go dance for half an hour. The only I'm not drinking is because being falling-down drunk would probably kill me. Particularly the 'falling-down' part."

My body shook its head. "Joker, the Reapers are coming, and there's a good chance we're all gonna die. If we got caught by the Reapers tomorrow and horrifyingly murdered in a terribly painful fashion, what you regret not doing?"

The pilot looked to the ground, the thinking clear in his face. "Not getting to see her face." He mumbled.

My body clapped him softly on the back. "Then get out there, grab your woman and dance with her. Don't leave this club with regrets, you hear?"

Joker grinned. "Alright, alright. I didn't think I'd be taking relationship advice from you, of all people."

My body responded with mock anger. "What's that supposed to mean, Joker? Are you implying something?"

He trotted off with a parting shot. "Nope, not a damn thing…man-whore."

My body wouldn't let that stand. "Bite me, you brittle bastard!"

"I would if I wasn't afraid of breaking my teeth!"

Joker shuffled through the crowd, coming up the two women. He pulled the quarian aside, leaving the woman in blue by herself.

My body got up from the counter and flowed through the crowd, ending up next to the woman. She had black eyes and black hair that was oddly rigid, and a nice body. She also seemed familiar, but I really couldn't place who it was…

She smiled at me and crooked a finger, beckoning me to join her in the dance. I moved in close and started moving.

The trick to dancing clubs with flashing lights and pounding music is moving with the beat. Once you have that down, style comes into play, but it's not as important. With all the flashing lights', simply following the beat is best, it's not as if anyone can see you that well.

We danced together for a few minutes, until the music came to stop. It picked back up, but far slower than before.

The lady put her arms around me as I did her, and we simply swayed. I spotted Joker over her shoulder. He was in the same position with the quarian, waggling his eyebrows and grinning cheekily at me.

"I see that you and Mordin figured out how to turn the camouflage systems back on." I say, smiling at the lady in my arms.

"Indeed, it was hidden in a surprisingly easy place to access. Mordin and I figured it was hidden someplace more complicated, but it was not." That voice…wait, EDI? "It may have been an attempt at humor from Cerberus, hiding it in a simple place while we overlooked it."

"While I don't mind having you look human, EDI, I much prefer your 'natural' look." I say, bringing her closer until we're practically hugging.

The skin brightened from a tan peach to a metallic silver, and the black of the irises into a metallic grey. The hair turned from brown to an odd grey, and the ears faded away entirely.

"This is confusing," EDI admitted, her voice showing her emotion. "From what my studies have shown, human males are more physically aroused by human females. Being stimulated by the synthetic form is considered 'weird'."

My body smiles in amusement. "I'm not other males, EDI. I won't lie, Dr. Eva Core` is hot," I dipped her to the music and brought her back up, nose-to-nose. "But I like EDI, illegal unshackled AI, pilot of the Normandy, explorer of the extranet. She's much cooler than Eva Core`."

She smiled tentatively. "I don't know if you really complimented me, but thank you anyway."

"I know I'm not very good with compliments, but what I mean is, I'd much rather have you as you than you trying to be someone else." Jesus, I suck trying to compliment women. I should look into fixing that, for what it's worth.

The world seemed to atomize, breaking into miniscule dots and swirling together into a black void that sucked all the light away.

I felt myself breathing, I could feel my lungs expand and compress in my chest and the beat of my heart thumped soundly in my chest.

I blinked, coming to realization that my eyes were closed, hence the darkness.

The room was a sort-of sterile grey white. The door was closed, with a green holographic circle in the middle. An IV was standing next to my bed, with a tube leading from a dangling bag into my arm. Oddly, I couldn't feel the needle. I mean, I could _feel_ the needle, but it didn't hurt.

"I see you're awake."

The soft voice sounded from the right of my bed. It was so unexpected that I nearly jumped off of the cot and onto the floor.

"Oh shit!"

A rueful chuckle came from Tela's mouth, the blue woman sitting in a chair next to my bed. She wore armor, blue and black that hugged her form while still being protective. "Sorry, I couldn't resist." She said, not really sounding apologetic. Her face fell slightly, just a barely visible droop of her mouth and the corners of her eyes. "Listen, I want to apologize."

I cut her off there. "Tela, I understand. The choice between taking out the captain of a slaver operation or getting into a firefight over a human you barely know isn't exactly a hard decision. I would have done much the same."

The corners of her mouth lifted slightly. "Thanks. I'm not good with apologies. Still…" She sat back in her chair, a thoughtful look on her face. "It doesn't sit right with me. I've been a Spectre for years, I've had to make this kind of decision before, but not with a slave being held captive."

Tela trailed off, lost in her thoughts. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this."

I shrug. "I've been told before that I'm a good listener. Most of the time it was mocking because I was gagged, but still. Credit."

She snorted. "Funny. I'll keep that in mind."

Tela sat up when the door beeped and slid open, admitting a Salarian in futuristic medical scrubs. "Ah, you're awake, good. I'm doctor Nelon. There's some information you need to hear."

He strode up to my bed and pulled a datapad from under his arm and flickering through the information on the screen. "When you were thrown into that crate of medi-gel, you were dosed with thirty-two times the recommended amount for the human body. This had some side-effects."

Well, he was blunt, at least.

He stared at me with his large, watery eyes. "The medi-gel was an expired batch that would have been mixed in with cheaper and valid medi-gel and then dispensed as high-quality product. The impact when you hit the crate drove eight splinters into your spinal column, which allowed the medi-gel to enter your nervous system and affect it."

Shit. That's not good. I wiggled my hands and my fingers, followed by my feet and my toes. Everything moved correctly, so I can't see why I felt a creeping sense of trepidation.

"We ran a scan of your nervous system. It seems the expired medi-gel killed a little more than half of the nerve receptors in your body." He tucked the pad away and pulled out a needle. Without any prompting, he stabbed it into my arm.

I yelped and tried to jerk away, but he held my arm fast. He had quite the grip for a skinny amphibian. "Did you feel that?" Dr. Nelon asked calmly, as if he didn't have a couple of inches of steel needle in my arm.

I was about to yell at this sadistic a-hole before I realized that I actually couldn't feel it. I could feel pressure where it stabbed into my skin, but it didn't hurt.

Odd.

My thoughts must have shown on my face. "As I said, the medi-gel killed more than half of the nerve receptors in your body. As far as we tested, you won't be able to feel pain ever again. Physically, anyway. I couldn't say about mentally, but I'm a doctor, not a damn therapist."

I like this guy.

He pulled the needle out of my arm. "The were also other affects as well. The medi-gel was soaked into your body at a toxic volume, and I'm actually surprised you managed to live. You have gained a regeneration factor, similar to that of Krogan. It's nothing big, compared to a few of the Krogan I know, but you will heal at about four times the human norm."

Dr. Nelon cut my arm with the needle and wiped away the blood, showing the thin line of red fade into pink, white and then disappears altogether.

"All of this seems pretty cool to me, doc." I say, not feeling very worried for my Wolverine-like healing abilities.

He rolled his bulbous eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'kids' under his breath. "Listen, you can't feel pain. While that can be good in some cases, in others it could kill you. For example, being shot in a major artery. You wouldn't be able to feel the pain, and you could continue to function afterwards. However, you would not be able to tell if you were worsening the wound, and you would bleed out and die without even knowing why."

Oh shit. I knew there was a catch. There's always a damn catch. "So, if I'm not careful, I could kill myself on accident."

He nodded. "Right. So, while there's nothing I can prescribe you to fix the nerve damage, I will ask that you be careful. Common cases with problems such as yours are people chewing their tongues off without realizing and other things. So be aware."

Nelon sighed and typed a few sentences into his datapad. "I'd like to keep you here for a few more days, just to see if your condition develops more, otherwise you're perfectly fine. Good day."

He left, leaving me and Tela alone once again.

The Asari sighed. "Well, that could have been worse." She leaned forward and patted me on the shoulder. "Listen, I know you said you understand, but I still want to make it up to you. I'm going to book you passage on a ship to the Citadel, and send a recommendation to Citadel Security. From what I saw, you have combat skills that would be useful there. They need some refining, and you can get that at C-Sec."

She stood from her chair and made to leave. "Wait," I called out, stopping her at the exit. "From what I saw, you could've killed all of those slavers onboard by yourself. Why were there so many?"

Tela grimaced. "It was supposed to be just me and two commandos as back-up, but one of the Matriarchs in charge of Asari Military caught wind of the operation and sent in her best." She shook her head with sigh. "She really doesn't like slavers."

And then she left. And I was left in the room, with nothing to really do except poke myself to see if I didn't feel pain anywhere.

Long story short, I didn't. I could feel softer touches, but anything that should've hurt only felt like pressure.

The door hissed open, but I didn't look up, too busy watching scratches fade. "That was fast-"

It wasn't Tela, or the doc. It was a batarian, an angry batarian at that. With a gun. The shotgun in his hands whined in anticipation.

"Hello, human. You've got a lot to answer for, taking out my subordinates." The leader of the slavers said, the snarl on his face meaning pain (if I could feel it) was in store for me.

_Fuck me._

**_A/N: Any confusion about the first part of the chapter WILL be answered later._**

**_As in, right now:_**

**_He was high from all of the medi-gel in his system._**

**_That is all._**

**_Stay Awesome._**

**_~Soleneus_**


	4. Cruising for a Torture Session

I hate waking up like this. I'm tied to a chair, with my wrists and ankles bound to the metal frame, and a bag over my head.

I can hear voices all around me, all gruff and low and raspy, so it must be a bunch of big guys, possibly batarian and krogan if I had to guess.

"Take the bag off." A gruff voice ordered, and suddenly I can see.

There are three batarians and one krogan, all wearing heavy armor and carrying shotguns, though two of the four-eyed aliens also have assault rifles. The one who had knocked me out and dragged me away from the hospital has a pale white scar that runs through his bottom right eye and just touches the top eye. He's also wearing a pair of white gauntlets, standing out from the red and black armor the others are wearing.

He gets in my face, his rancid breath tickling my nose, sharp little teeth bared in an angry snarl. "I might not be able to get the Spectre, but her little friend will do just fine. I don't know who you are, but I'm getting my pound of flesh from you."

He grabs the cloth covered object I just now notice is next to my chair and rips the cloth away, showing me a tray full of sharp, rusty implements. Wait, they're not rusty, just covered in dried blood. Great.

Looking between the angry batarian and the tray full of fun times, I realize that I have two ways to play this off.

One: I could pretend that I can still feel pain, and scream a little bit. This could either satisfy them or encourage them, with about a fifty-fifty chance of both.

Options Two: I could simply be myself and ignore the fact that they're beating the hell out of me.

…

Fuck it, option two. If I'm going to go out, I'm gonna go out like a badass.

"You know," I comment lightly, as if discussing the weather. "We humans have a saying, back on Earth."

"I don't care," He growls at me, frowning.

"Fantastic. Anyway, the saying is: 'You got beat with the ugly stick.'" His response is to deck me across the face. I can hear my nose crunch, and the oddity of not feeling anything other than pressure is still a novelty.

"As I was saying, there's a second part to that saying: 'You didn't just get beat with ugly stick, you got beat with the whole damn tree.'" Pushing this guy seems to be bad for my immediate health, but fuck this clown. I've seen how this goes. He tortures me, and when he finds out I have exactly noting to say, he'll either cap me or torture me for fun.

Physical violence is once again his preferred method of communication. One of his hands comes up and grabs the back of my hair, pulling my head back. I can't see what he does, but the sudden pressure in my stomach and air that flies out of my mouth doesn't leave much to the imagination.

I ignore the shortness of breath and give him my best exasperated look. "I'm still not finished. You are being very rude."

The Krogan chuckles as the batarian grimaces. "As I _was saying,_ ever since I've met a batarian, I've always wondered what sort of evil beings your ancestors must have been, because your entire species looks like they uprooted the whole forest of ugly trees and had week of going around and beating each other with them."

The three Batarians are positively shaking in rage. "I mean, what I'm saying is, you look ugly as all hell. It makes me wonder why we never see female Batarians. Perhaps they're so hideous you keep them on Khar'Shan as last resort. Or maybe they're so pretty compared to you that you're all jealous?"

The biggest batarian, this one colored like chocolate, snarls and steps over to a dilapidated wall and wrenches a rusty old pipe out of the wall, scattering dust everywhere.

I just now noticed that the scene of my torture was an old warehouse, seemingly abandoned for decades, if the musty smell and plants growing out of the ground have anything to say.

"I will make you scream!" He screams ironically, swinging the pipe down onto my left knee.

The bones crack along with the sound metal striking flesh, and it all of a sudden feels like I have very large dog lying on my leg.

Glancing down at the wound, which is bleeding profusely, I give the panting alien with the pipe a bored stare. "Whatever." I say nonchalantly.

The Krogan outright laughs at this. I grin at him and give him a cheery wink. "Thank you, I'll be here for another couple of minutes, at least."

The Krogan grins a wide grin full of teeth, the right side of his face heavily scarred, the damage running up over his eye and across the blood-red plate on his noggin. "I like you, human. You must have a quad on you. Most humans I know would be crying right about now."

I nod sagely. "True, a good many of my kind are fucking pansies. But even these ass-clowns couldn't pull a scream of pain from a baby."

The batarian with the pipe seems to be having a mild stroke, and he swings his pipe up and slams down onto my left hand, the crunch cringe-worthy and echoing around the room.

"Wow," I quip, "I almost felt that."

The leader, the one with scar, grabs one of the rusty implements 'o fun off of the tray and is stabbing towards my shoulder when his radio sounds off. _"Karath! We're under attack! We need reinforcements!"_

He growled and pulled back, sticking a finger in his ear and talking through the communications channel. "Who are we being attacked by and why can't you hold them off?!"

"_It's that Spectre! That bitch and some Salarian in scrubs are tearing through our men!"_

"Dammit!" He cursed blackly, the anger on his face clear and evident. "You two, go out there and support the others! Urdnot, you stay here and guard the prisoner, we'll catch them off guard."

The other two Batarians left, drawing their assault rifles and priming them.

"Urdnot?" I ask the Krogan. "As in Urdnot Wrex?"

Wrex chuckles and nods as he leans against the wall, looking for all in the world like he's chilling in a bar. "I see even humans have heard of me."

I nod emphatically. "Yeah. The most recent Krogan to kill a Thresher Maw on foot? Of course people have heard of you. I gotta ask though, what do biotics feel like when you use them?"

He quirks a scaly eyebrow. "Well, when you use biotics, it feels like you could tear apart your enemies with your bare hands, or like you can do anything, anything at all. But when you're not using them, you feel this kind of prickling on the back of your neck. Or, that's how it feels for me."

Ever since I'd woken up in that little metal cage on the crappy salver ship, I'd felt something tingling along my spine, like someone running a feather up and down my back.

Concentrating on the feeling, I felt the world warp, for the lack of a better word. Odd, whirling energy filled my limbs with strength, and I can feel the metal restraints snapping in protest to the sudden influx of power.

Karath, the slaver leader, is mid-spin, his eyes wide in fear and anger, his arms bringing his shotgun to bear on me.

I push the power into my fingertips and throw my right arm forward. Instead of an orb of blue and purple energy, the bolt that leaps from my hand is orange and black and swirling violently.

The orb flits through the air in a second and impacts into the batarians' chest and explodes violently. The shockwave from the explosion sends me back into and then over the chair. I can feel my head bounce off the floor, and the world blurs and spins around me. I can just barely see Wrex off to my left, covered in a cloak of blue biotic energy.

Still in a daze, I can barely turn my head as Karath limps into my view, his left hand clutching his right side. The right side of his armor is warped and melted, globs dripping from his body and splattering the floor. His face is a burned, angry mass of charred flesh, but he's still alive, if only barely. The shields in his armor must have deflected the blast a little bit, because otherwise he wouldn't be standing.

"I don't even know who you are, human…" He growls, baring his teeth in rage. "I don't care anymore. But…I am going to kill you…right here…right n-"

A cluster of mass-accelerated rounds plowed into and then out of his chest, spraying dark green blood out his back. Karath collapsed to the ground, the light leaving his eyes.

Turning my head, I saw Wrex, standing a couple of feet away with his shotgun out, the barrel steaming slightly. "Over-dramatic wuss." He commented lightly, pulling the stock back and letting the built-up heat escape. "I never monologue, I prefer to just shoot my targets and be done."

He looks down at me with a grin. "Exploding biotics, huh? Good luck getting that under control."

I manage to push myself up with the one hand I have that isn't broken into a sitting position. "Why'd you shoot him? Didn't he hire you?"

Wrex shrugs without care. "The bounty on his head is more than what he offered me. Plus, he paid in advance, so I get his credits and his bounty. Today's been a good day."

An armored fist wreathed in biotic energy plows through the door with a screech of rusted metal, knocking the door off its' damn hinges and dropping it to the floor.

Tela steps through, biotics flared and SMG ready for use. Her purple eyes widen in surprise at seeing me free, the body of Karath lying in a pool of blood and Wrex, standing around. Nelon comes into the room and immediately moves over to my side, his omni-tool out and scanning my body.

He makes a 'tsk' sound. "Fractured patella, fractured metacarpal and phalanges, minor contusions and a mild concussion. Don't do anything by halves, do you?" He asks me sarcastically.

"Why are you here, doc? Not that I don't appreciate it." I question, wondering exactly why a doctor would willingly jump into a combat situation.

He shrugs easily, already setting my knee into place and applying a little bit of medi-gel. "Walked into my hospital, shot my receptionist and stole my patient? Unforgiveable, bad for business. Receptionist will survive, by the way."

Tela holsters her SMG and approaches with a smirk on her face. "So, they kidnapped you to get to me? Funny how that worked out for them." She turns and looks Wrex in the face. "And since I know that Sol doesn't have a shotgun, you must have been the one to put Karath down?"

The Krogan Battlemaster nods once. "Yep. Your boy though, used some unrefined biotics and created a distraction for me, so he should get a little of the credit. I get all the credits, though."

Tela glances over to me for a second, an unreadable look in her eyes. "Really? Well, on behalf of the Council, I thank you for ending the threat of Sul Karath."

Wrex scoffs and brushes past her, kneeling next to Karath and fiddling with something on the corpse's arm. "Whatever, just make sure the money's in my account within the week." He yanks something off of the batarian's wrist and tosses it at me.

With one of my arms supporting me and the other being bound and treated, the thin, wire-like bracelet bounces off of my chest and into my lap. "There. If you had an omni-tool with the blade application, you could have been free much earlier." He stomps away, stopping at the door and looking back at me. "You're interesting, human. Survive so that we meet again."

And then he leaves.

The world starts tilting on a strange axis, my vision spinning. Nelon pushes me down on the ground. "Ah. Injected you with tranquilizer. For easier transportation."

Well, that was kind of a dick move. I can't even voice my thoughts as darkness encroaches on my vision.

My last sight is Tela, staring down at me with small frown on her face.

…

I wake up, once again in my hospital room. Tela is sleeping in a chair to my left, her chin resting on her chest as she breathes softly.

The door hisses open, permitting the good doctor Nelon into my room. "Ah, awake. Bones have been set. Should only take a day or so to fully heal."

I nod absently, my mind fixed on the blue Spectre next to me. "Hey doc, can I ask you something?"

Seeing his horned head nod, I continue. "Why did Karath kidnap me? I'm just a human who was in the wrong place at the right time."

Nelon points to the Asari on my left. "Found signs of hacking in camera systems. Changed security. Logs indicate that Spectre Vasir has not left your side in the three days you were unconscious after the medi-gel incident, nor after you were transported here after being rescued."

That's odd. Tela's not only a Spectre, inter-galactic bad-ass/secret agent, but someone who only met me just recently. Not mention, she didn't seem to be much like her appearance in Mass Effect 2.

"Anyway, you have been released into the care of Spectre Vasir as of right now. Good luck." Dr. Nelon nodded to me and left the room, letting the door hiss shut behind him.

I sat in silence for awhile, just thinking. I don't know what time I'm in compared to the start of the games, but I already know what I'm gonna do.

Fuck shit up. I'm not staying on the sidelines, just letting Shepard and co. fix the galaxy, not when I can use my knowledge to my advantage. You can bet that I will be there right along with them, fighting the Reapers and making a difference.

But first, I need some skills. Sure, I can shoot a pistol and I'm pretty good with a knife, but the technology is completely alien to me, pun intended. Tech has always been interesting to me, so learning about all the different things should be very interesting. Not to mention my biotics. My exploding biotics.

"You're wondering why I put you under my care, right?" Tela's sudden speaking jerks me out of my thoughts, fixing my attention squarely on her. She stares into my eyes, a her face blank.

I nod. "Kind of. You don't really know me and I don't really know you. Why would you?"

She frowns, her eyes glassing over. "I used to be a slave," She murmurs, mind somewhere far away. "They fed me Red Sand constantly, and my biotics are hard to control as a result. A group of commandos freed me and forty other slaves, and they had to name most of us, as we'd been slaves since birth. I made up my name, picking it from the snippets I could remember of my parents." Tela sighs, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "You are a lot like me, even the biotics. I guess I feel a sense of…kinship with you. Something is telling me that leaving you to fend for yourself when I could do something about it would be a mistake."

"Besides," She smirks, a playful light in her eyes. "You need to learn how to control your biotics. Otherwise, who knows what could happen. This is for the good of the galaxy." Tela mockingly states.

I make a face of mock anger, but I know she's right. "Can you teach me? How to fight, and shoot and use this tech around the galaxy? I don't even recognize a lot of the things around me."

She mulls it over, nodding. "Alright. A few skills can save your life, after all."

"By the way," I ask. "What's the date? In human time, anyway." She opens her omni-tool and checks the orange screen.

"Hmm…October 24th, 2180 by Earth time."

That means I missed my birthday. Oh well, doesn't really matter.

I have three years until the worlds starts on the path to hell. Time to make the most of it.

…

**A/N: 'Sol', my name, can be pronounced two ways: S-O-l, like 'soul' or S-o-l, like 'Saul'. I prefer the latter.**

**I also made up a backstory for Tela, since we're not given one in game. **

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus.**


	5. Lifted and Then Blown Away

Staring at the lights decorating the ceiling, I wonder, how exactly did I come to this place?

After I finally figured out how to use the omni-tool Wrex had given me, I found that the batarian's bank account had about six zeroes and many, many underworld contacts. Most of the cash was taken as reparations for the slaves Karath had taken, though I was left a good chunk. It was only added to when I gave up the contacts to Tela. She arrested most of the people on the list, but a few, such as black market weapons and armor dealers of high quality were given lee-way for a discount on purchases.

That's one of the things I think I like most about Tela. She's not a bad person, she does things a lot of people would call immoral, but she has her reasons. One of the black market dealers had actually smuggled a few Spectre-only weapons out of the Citadel, and instead of turning him in, Tela bought a few pieces, commended him on his talents and offered him a few jobs.

Afterwards, we left Nasurn in Tela's personal shuttle, a small Asari-Turian ship called _Valkyrie_. A couple of jaunts through a few Mass Relays, and we were on our way to the Widow System.

While we were en route, Tela showed me how to access a few omni-tool functions, such as the extranet (I also deleted the browser history), a scanning program, the Omni-Blade application, and a few hacking modules. I shot an email to Nelon, asking him to teach me how to use Overload and Incinerate, as Tela told me he was quiet proficient in using those programs during their raid on Karath's warehouse.

Once we reached the Widow System, I got a good look at the Citadel.

The giant, star-fish-like satellite peering out of a thick cloud of purple nebulae was probably one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. The games didn't really do it justice. The gleaming white of the outer sections radiated beautifully in the purple, and the inside, orange lights running through it like blood…it was magnificent.

We didn't stick around long. Tela set us off to a nearby planet in the system, Bekenstein, where the Spectre had a retreat that she stayed at when she wasn't working.

I'd been living in her cottage for about two months now. During that time, she's kicked my ass more times than I can count.

That's a lie. She's kicked my ass sixty-seven times. But, the results were very much worth it. Since I heal a lot faster than any other species besides Krogan and Vorcha, I took advantage of that and kicked my own ass. I was stronger, faster and honestly I thought I might have gotten taller. I would work out until my body gave out, and then I'd rest until my muscles healed, and then work out some more.

Tela started teaching me how to shoot. I already knew how to shoot pistols, but we started working on running and gunning and we'd move assault rifles in a couple of weeks.

We've sparred, and I've never won once, to be expected, but I really wanted to start working on my biotics. After the fourth time I tried to use them and ended up exploding myself, Tela had forbidden me from using them without her supervision. Honestly, everything I tried, form Lift, to Pull to Warp exploded.

Tela peers down at me, the lights illuminating the smirk on face, the purple paint on her cheeks curled. "You lasted fifteen minutes this time. Good, it seems like the flexibility training is working out."

Jesus Christ, flexibility training! I can't feel pain anymore, but hearing my body crack as it tried to contort into odd shapes was just downright uncomfortable.

Looking back at her, I try to avoid staring at her chest. "I will beat you one day." I say determinedly. "Just not today or probably anytime soon."

She reaches down and grabs my arm, heaving me to my feet. "Keep trying, Sol. You'll get it eventually. Now, go hit the shower and meet me outside with the Gorgon. We'll start on firing-while-moving." Tela winks and strolls out the door.

My eyes are naturally drawn to her swaying hips and the rear presented by the pants she wore. And that's another thing I like/loathe about Tela. She doesn't like to wear too many clothes. After she took off her armor and stored it away, I'd seen more of her flesh than cloth more often then not. She prefers to wear a sports bra or tanktop as a top, and than loose-fitting but still tight pants.

I think she's still getting used to having another person in her house. Occasionally, I'd find her coming down the stairs for breakfast wearing a pair of shorts and nothing else, or I'd meet her coming out of the shower without a towel. We've even showered together. Her bathroom is big, so it's not like we were stuffed into a stall or something, but still. I think she may be teasing me, because she slapped my ass the last time, and she's wolf-whistled at me more than once when I decided to join her in the 'shirtless' section.

It's nice, but confusing. Women, no matter what planet they come from, what species they are, are completely incomprehensible to me.

I take a quick shower, rinsing the sweat and grime that comes from getting thrown to floor of her sparring ring over and over again, but I save using soap for after the gun training, as I'll be just as sweaty then and there's no reason to waste good soap.

After throwing on a shirt and some pants, I grab the Gorgon and head out.

The Gorgon V is a powerful and accurate Assault Rifle that's not readily available for purchase, but Tela knows people. The entire line of Gorgon rifles are only a little less powerful than Spectre Master gear, and can even be better with the right mods.

The field we practice at is a small, flat valley behind Tela's house that's covered in holographic emitters, so that it can be configured for a variety of uses, such as a firing range, a building, or anything, really.

Right now, it's just a firing range, with targets at the far end and Tela waiting for me at the front. "Alright, let's get started. First of all, Assault Rifles are very different from a pistol or a shotgun. The high rate of fire can mess up your aim easily, so the best bet is to fire in short bursts."

She takes the gun from me and flicks a switch on the side, lighting up a circle with three dots on the inside and then hands it back to me. "The best way to keep your accuracy and deal damage with a rifle is to keep your arms up, stiff but loose. Don't aim down the sights all the time, you can lose sight of peripheral enemies if you focus too much. The kick is negligible in burst fire mode, but can push the barrel up in full auto."

Tela types a few commands into her omni-tool, and the targets begin to move forward and backward. "Alright, now, strafe left and right. You'll be finished after you hit all the targets and we'll go over your performance."

I nod to her, turning the safety off and nestling the stock into my shoulder, trying to keep my arms level while still being loose.

My legs cross as I strafe from left to right, trying to hit each target with a centered burst. One by one, the targets begin to fade after being hit, and the final one goes down. I'm winded and a little sweaty, but otherwise fine. I think I did pretty good.

Tela waves me over, her omni-tool open with data scrolling across the screen. "Not bad, not bad at all. 78.67% accuracy. Not bad for a first time."

"Yup," I quip, popping the 'p'. "I'm going to savor this moment, this minute in time when you've said that I was 'not bad'. I know you're going to make me feel like crap in like two seconds, so I should savor this while I can."

She smirks, holding up a hand and counting down five seconds. After she finishes, she speaks. "Commandos aren't generally accepted by the military unless they have an accuracy rating of 93.65%, during a live-fire exercise while also running through an obstacle course with biotics being thrown at them."

"There it is. I feel like crap now. Thanks, Tela." I mutter sarcastically. "Speaking of biotics," I segue quite admirably, "When are we going to start on those?"

Tela looks at me, seemingly scanning my body for something, and sighs. "Alright, I guess I've held it off long enough. Come with me."

I follow her up a hill, to a low wall made of stone, something I hadn't seen since coming to this universe. Next to this wall was a box full of old bottles, which she set up three on the wall, evenly spaced, and then came to stand next to me.

"Alright," She starts, "First, you need the mnemonics. After using biotics for a long time, you can use the different abilities with the same motion." As an example, she thrust her hand out, lifting the center bottle gently into the air, where it floated lazily. The bottle came back down with a soft clink as Tela thrust her hand out again, a blue disc of energy racing through the air and impacting into the same bottle with a_ boing_ sound. The container went flipping into the air at an angle, spinning crazily until the aura around it faded and it fell to ground and shattered.

"I can launch warp and singularity with the same motion, and that's because I've used the motions for years until manipulating the Mass Effect fields became second nature." Her entire demeanor was serious, something I'd rarely seen from the woman. "Now, mirror my stance."

She placed her right leg back and her left forward, crouching slightly; bringing her right arm up and back near her shoulder while her left descended to her hip, facing upwards and open. "This will be your go-to stance while using biotics. Switch whatever weapon you're using at the time to your left hand when you attack."

I tried to mirror her stance as best as I could; left hand down and open, right hand back near my shoulder, left leg front and right leg back, crouching slightly. Tela shook her head slightly. "No, you need you arm cocked back a little more…here, let me."

She moved behind me and corrected my stance, bringing my left hand up, bending the elbow more; she pushed down on my right arm, making it level with my sternum; kicked my left leg forward a little more while pushing my hips into alignment with my shoulders.

All the while, I could feel her skin on mine, the feather touches she used to correct me sent tingles up my spine. Her skin was oddly warm, especially since she's blue, and the scale-like quality made it almost like silk. Her chest was pressed against my back, the firm orbs pushing slightly across the fabric of my shirt.

"Now, focus on the pull of the biotics." She said, breaking me out of the feeling of her skin. "Bring it up, into your right hand, circle it in your palm and let the rest glide over your body."

I closed my eyes, letting the prickly sensations of my biotics cover my body.

It's like being engulfed in a warm cyclone of wind, a slight amount of pressure pushing down on my body. I pull it into my hand, letting the pressure follow my lead and gather there.

"Good, good." She murmurs into my ear, her warm breath someone getting through my shroud and tickling my skin. "Now, push your hand forward, and release it out. One of the biggest modifiers is intent. Focus on what you want to happen to your target, only simple commands. _Lift. Pull. Warp. Fly. Come. Shred._ Focus…"

Opening my eyes, I look at the bottles at sight onto the one on the far left. "Fly," I feel myself mutter, thrusting my hand forward and releasing the energy there.

A discus of energy flies from my hand, but there's something strange. The outside is shrouded in cool blue, while the inside is a mass of twisting orange and black.

The disc meets the bottle, and with a ring like a gong, the bottle is pulled up into the air. Elation fills my veins. I did it. I used my biotics on purpose.

The bottle floats benignly on the wind, but something's wrong. The shroud around it lights up into a violent orange. With an angry crack, the bottle explodes, throwing shards of glass in every direction.

Tela smiles at me, a true smile, the first I'd seen from her. "That was good, Sol, very good. It only took you a minute to bring the energy forth and another to use it. Though," She smirks. "I could have done without the exploding. We'll work more on it."

Tela pulls away, clapping her hands together. "Any how, there's something going on tonight, so let's hit the showers."

I follow after her, feeling slightly troubled about the explosive side-effects of my biotics. Don't get me wrong, explosions are awesome. But, there's something alluring about being able to lift someone into the air with nary a thought. Making them explode afterwards is entirely different. Maybe.

I come back to myself in the bathroom, with my shirt on the floor and my hands pulling down the waistband of my pants. I can already see Tela under the spray of hot water coming from one of the shower heads, of which there are eight. The water travels down her skin in sheets of silver against the blue hue of her back, making her look like some ethereal goddess of water. Even the movements of her washing herself seem like a dance, graceful and smooth.

I start, realizing that I've been staring at the naked woman underneath the water for awhile, as she moved onto massaging shampoo into her scalp crests.

I discard the rest of my clothes and move into the shower, grabbing one of the movable heads and turning it on cold, full-blast at my crotch.

I barely manage to hold the sound of surprise back, quickly turning the heat to hot and reveling in the feel of the hot water running over my skin and washing away the day's stresses.

I'm just rinsing the soap off my bod when I hear Tela speak. "Hey, Sol? Can you grab the body wash and get my back? We're going to have company soon, and I want to smell good."

Alright, this is nothing serious, just a little back washing between friends. I squirt a little bit of the light blue gel into my hands and lather it up into fluffy foam.

Okay, don't be too light, you'll seem too romantic. Don't be too rough, I'm not a dick and I don't want to make it seem like rubbing gel on this hot lady is a chore, it's so fucking not.

I place my foamy hands on her shoulders, and start rubbing the wash into her skin, using the pads of my thumbs to give her a little massage. She moans a little underneath my fingers, and I'm making sure not to poke her with the wood I'm sporting.

I move down her back, working a few knots I find out of her shoulders and spine while lathering her skin with wash. The moans she's making are not making this easy, not at all. The feel of her skin, the sounds she makes and the way her body twitches minutely is almost like torture.

I finally finish and wash the foam off of her back. "There you go." I say, moving back to my previous spot and grabbing my own, manly smelling shampoo and working it into my hair.

I freeze slightly when I feel warm, silky hands covered in soft foam on my shoulders. "Let me return the favor," Tela says breathily, pulling me back out of the spray. Her hands work into my shoulders, finding the knots there and massaging them away. The soft hands she possess work down my back, washing and massaging all the way. When she finally stops near my lower back, I nearly breathe a sigh of relief.

And then I gasp. Her hands are foamy once more, but this time, they're on my chest, rubbing into my pectorals. That's not the reason I'm surprised, though. Tela's pressed against my back. I can feel her breast pushing against my skin, the hard nubs of her nipples poking into my flesh. Her stomach is pressed against my back, and her hips cradle mine.

This is far more intimate than I thought it would be, and it's only getting better. Her hands descend from my pecs and move onto my ribs, the feelings that she causes making my whole body tingle.

And then she goes lower. Tela massages the foam into my abdomen, and I'm pretty sure that, given the circumstances, I'd be forgiven if I whipped around and moved this situation from intimate to _intimate._

Before I can start to gather the courage, the massage ends, and she pushes us forward, under the spray of hot water. The foam is rinsed away, and I can feel it run through and around the breasts still pressed against my back.

For a few minutes, all she does is hold my back to her chest, with her arms around my stomach, my hands resting on hers.

Then, without a word, she kisses my neck. The lips she has are softer than even her skin, something I didn't think was possible. Tela pulls away, stepping out of the shower and shaking the moisture away. "Don't be too long." She says to me, the soft look on her face tugging at the beating organ in my heart.

And then she leaves, and I'm alone in the shower.

I don't know how long I was in there, just letting the water spray over my head. I don't think. I might be in shock, but it's a pleasant state of confusion.

Eventually, I come back to my mind and turn off the water. I step out, grab a towel and dry my body off, marveling just a tad at how well my body looks after a torturous regimen of work-outs and sprints. I tie the towel around my waist and grab a smaller one, using it to dry my hair.

I step out of the bathroom, still rustling my hair with my towel, naked except for another towel around my waist.

With my vision blocked, I can't really see a damn thing, so it's no surprise I bump into Tela at some point. "Ah, sorry Tela. You said we were going to have…company…?"

I trail off after taking the towel away from my head and see just who it is I bumped into, because it is surely not Tela Vasir.

The Asari in front of me is wearing a creamy yellow dress that, while tight on the torso, is also loose around the lower half, showing a good length of smooth legs.

The air she holds is playful, but still contains a bit of regal traces. Her face is a smooth oval, and her skin is paler than most Asari I've met, being more of a sky blue.

"Well, aren't you forward?" She says teasingly, lightly trailing a finger down my bare chest. "It's refreshing, having a strapping young man come to me nearly naked, instead of bowing in the presence of a Matriarch."

She holds a hand out, the smirk curling her lips positively scary and arousing at the same time. "I'm Matriarch Benezia T'Soni. Pleasure to…meet you."

I take her hand and lay a kiss on the back like a gentleman as her eyes rake up and down my body. I suddenly feel pleasantly violated.

"_Ahem."_

Oh. It turns out, Benezia isn't the only Asari coming to visit tonight. In fact, there seem to be about twenty-five.

And I'm standing in a towel, and nothing else.

The looks in their eyes frighten me, and I feel very, _very_ much like a piece of meat on display, and these hungry cougars haven't had such a tender meal in ages.

I'm scared. For my purity, my chastity, and my virility. I have the feeling that, given the chance, I would end up someone's plaything tonight.

Oddly enough, that doesn't bother as much as it should.

With a small rustle, the towel around my waist flutters to the ground, the mischievous sparkles in Benezia's eyes giving away the culprit.

And now I'm naked. Flashing a room full of hot, older blue women everything I've got on display.

_I'm so fucked. Literally._

…

**A/N: Romance. Is it in the air? Perhaps. Find out next chapter what happens.**

**Read, review and enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**


	6. Feelings, Confusion and Sex

**A/N: It gets sexy here, with a logical explanation at the end. And I mean really sexy. You've been warned. And it's not like there's not plot, there totally is. You can look for it if you want, because there totally is some.**

I bent down and retrieved my towel, wrapping it back around my waist. "Excuse me, ladies."

As I turned and started back up the stairs, I barely caught a glimpse of Tela's face. Her cheeks were bloated with air as she struggled not to burst out laughing, her face slowly turning purple.

I may or may not have dashed to my room once I was out of sight.

Dear god, I just gave a room full of women a full-frontal nude show. I feel really badass right now, but also really fucking embarrassed. It didn't help that the women in the room all held the same kind of look in their eyes: _This is going to be fun!_

I take my time as I dress. There's no need to rush back to the room full women I just flashed, is there? I throw on a pair of boxers and some pants, but leave my feet bare. The grass around the house is soft, and I'd rather not wear shoes anyway. I also pull on a grey shirt with a black, short-sleeve button-up shirt over that which is left un-buttoned. I'm just casual like that.

Leaning on the wall next to the stairs, I'm suddenly struck by a case of the nerves. How are they going to react, seeing me? Fully clothed, no less? What if they thought I was discussing the theme of the party and decided to go all nude?

Wait, fuck this. Sol does not get nervous! Sol does not bitch to himself about things out of his control/things he wouldn't mind happening!

I should stop thinking in the third person perspective. It's really annoying. But it doesn't change the fact that I ain't no bitch, son.

As I step down the stairs, I can see just how many Asari there actually here. There's eight lounging on the couches with multi-colored drinks in their hands. Six sitting next to the bar, either making drinks or drinking drinks, and another four are leaning against the bar. Six Asari are in the kitchen, also drinking or cooking some food. I can see Tela, she's talking with a purple-skinned Asari with yellow and black paint on her face while cooking some fish and vegetables. There are about four different pairs of Asari by leaning against walls, chatting with drinks.

One of those pairs is Benezia and an Asari with purple skin, pronounced scale-like features on her crests and white paint decorating her face and her lips. Benezia catches sight of me and winks playfully.

All of the Asari here are dressed casually, no expensive dresses or suits among the lot. I see a few sundresses, and few in jeans. No one has shoes, either.

As I move through the party, I can see a few winks thrown my way. I lean casually against the counter next to Tela, trying to exude an aura of quiet confidence. "So, Tela, what's this party about?"

The Spectre grins at me. "It's a relaxation party, Sol. These women here are the hard workers of the Asari people, the high-level movers and shakers in the Galactic scene."

The woman next to her with the yellow and black paint tilts her head at me. "Not me. I retired sometime ago. I'm Delria Araso, I created the Eclipse Private Security Company."

I shake her hand and can't help but ask, "Eclipse? The mercenary company?"

She scowls angrily. "Back in my day, we provided genuine and legitimate security to genuine and legitimate companies. After I retired, they stopped being a good group and became fucking _mercenaries._" Delria shoots her drink back almost violently and sighs. "Heh. I don't want to think about it. Distract me, tiger."

I don't really know what to say, and she takes the initiative by _cupping my fucking crotch_. "Hmm," She wonders, still fondling my man parts. "Good, good. Nice size, nice shape, nice length, good." Delria returns to her drink, like she wasn't just grabbing my dong and feeling me up. "Hey, Tela. I call dibs."

"Too late!" Another voice cuts in, coming from Benezia, who's approaching us with the white-marked Asari next to her. "I already called dibs, Delria, remember?"

She looks me with a playful smile and mischievous eyes. "Hey there. Thanks for the show earlier. I hope I can catch the next one in private."

The overtly sexual vibes I'm getting from practically every woman here is disconcerting but also awesome. I can see a pair of Asari make out on the couch, with another pair watching them and commenting while sipping booze.

"What kind of party is this?" The words slip out of my mouth before I can think about them.

Benezia laughs. "It's a relaxation party! There are only a few here who aren't Matriarchs, the hardest workers among the Asari. While I do love my work, it gets to be too much, even for the most dedicated. So, every once in awhile, we gather and party for a couple of days, blow off some steam, have some wild sex or an orgy like when we were Maidens and then get back to work, more productive than before."

That actually makes sense to me. With how long Asari live, I'm not surprised that they would get stressed after year after year of work and toil. I guess they just save up their wild feelings and let them loose in a party. They're all women, so it makes sense that they would be more open with their sexuality than other species. Awesome.

Must be a cultural thing.

Benezia sighs in what seems to be contentment. "It makes me feel young again. Ah, I forgot, this is Tevos Belsari, Asari Councilwoman."

That's where I know this lady from! She's the Councilor for the Asari on the Citadel! Holy shit.

"Really?" I ask, hearing the surprise in my voice as I shake her hand. "I thought that was full-time job?"

The councilor rolls her eyes. "Believe me, it is. But here's a secret." She leans in until we're nearly touching noses. "I'm not the real Tevos."

What?

Tevos continues. "The real Tevos died nearly four thousand years ago. I'm the third one to have the name and the face. My replacement-in-training has taken over for awhile, leaving me with some free time."

"Why the deception?" I ask.

She shrugs. "The original Tevos had the idea of having someone who looks like her and has the same name taking over after she retired, giving the illusion that Tevos is pretty much immortal. I heard that Aria, on Omega, is thinking of doing the same thing, but she has a few centuries before that's a worry for her." Tevos points at the two Asari making out on the couch, and I just now notice that the aggressive one on top is fucking Aria T'Loak, of all people.

A drink is thrust into my hand, snapping me away from my shock. Looking down at the blue liquid, I feel something in the back of my head telling me not to drink it.

Benezia pokes me in the arm and smiles. "Drink up. I know you're nervous, and a little alcohol is just the thing you need to calm down."

Shrugging, I kick the drink back and take it down easily. It goes down smoothly, like water, but with the tingle of alcohol and a sweet taste with an oddly tingly after-taste.

Licking my lips, I look back up at Benezia. "What was that drink? It was good."

The smile on her face turns predatory. "Thessia Blue Love Wine."

I nearly choke. Thessia Blue Love Wine? Fuck, she just dosed me with an aphrodisiac! "What?" I splutter, feeling violated.

She grins but doesn't say a thing. "Pairs!" Tela calls out, biotically moving another couple of couches around the coffee table. "It's time for Pairs! Come sit down and put your name in!"

We move over to the couches, Tevos on one side and Benezia on the other. The amount of people is more than seats on the couch, so there's a good few sitting on each other's laps. No one seems to mind.

"Alright, now send your name to the bowl." Tela ordered, her omni-tool open on her arm as an orange holo-bowl popped up on the table. "Alright, here are the rules! When your name is picked and you get your partner, you have twenty minutes to do whatever you want. Except sex, that's for later. Then you come back and we'll randomize again."

Wait. We're just randomly getting our names picked and then pairing up? What if I get stuck with another dude?!

Looking around, I realize that's a folly. I'm the only guy here, and from the looks of it, everyone's been drinking Love Wine.

I love Asari.

Tela started naming pairs, and the two ladies' would get up and move off into the living room. Most of them started making out, though Aria and the lady I recognized as Aethyta started a drinking contest.

"Sol and Tevos." Tela announced, smirking at me as Tevos grabbed my arm and dragged me out onto the front porch.

She pushes me down on one of the seats, swinging her legs over mine and straddling my waist. Tevos smirks down at me and purrs, "Let's not waste time, hmm?" And dives forward, crashing her mouth onto mine.

She tastes like some mix between mangoes and oranges, with a hint of spice. She must have been drinking tropical tonight.

Her tongue's in my mouth, twisting around my own and playing with it, while her hands moving around my back, fondling the muscle there.

I'm not about to be dominated by this woman, even though I'm still kind-of shell-shocked by the overtly sexual meaning of this party. My hands descend from her back to her hips, which I massage gently. Her moans are encouraging, so I move my hands down and grab me two handfuls of blue rear.

Her ass is both hard and soft at the same time, and seems to be an erogenous point on her, because I can feel her freeze for second, before she gets right back into it, even fiercer this time.

Time blurs, and not once do our mouths separate. She must be inhaling through her nose and passing into my lungs, because I don't feel out of breath at all. At some point, Tevos had slipped her dress down a bit and brought one of my hands up to play with a one of her breasts.

I'm still massaging the sapphire orb when our omni-tools chime. Tevos pulls away, panting with her lips swollen slightly. "Whew. That was fun. I can't wait until we get into the real thing."

Real thing? What, the twenty minutes of swapping spit wasn't real?

Tevos slips the straps of her dress back up and wipes her mouth on the back of her hand. She grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet, back into the living room and then pushes me onto the couch, hopping onto my lap and grinding her backside into my front.

As the bowl shuffles through names again, I take the time to look around the room at the asari here. Most have ruffled clothes and swollen lips, purple blushes on their faces, drinks in hand, chatting and joking with each other like teenagers.

And then, it hits me. All of these women…they look like they forgot how to smile, how to have fun, how to just relax…

And that's the whole point of this party. They don't have fun, they go to wild parties or have one night stands…there, at their jobs, they have images to uphold, companies and people relying on their unbendable spine and unshakeable confidence in themselves.

Here, now…they can let that all go free. They can party wildly; drink until they a hangover on another hangover, fuck whoever they want to fuck and just have fun.

Because every other day, they don't have fun. They can't. It's stress upon stress. It's no wonder to me that they look so relieved and happy, wearing casual clothes and throwing back drinks, groping the person next to them and laughing about it. They'd forgotten what is like to be young.

On my lap, Tevos knocks back a glass of Blue Love Wine, grabs me by the back of my head and pulls my head back, slamming her mouth over mine and deposits the wine down my throat with her tongue.

Heat spreads from my stomach and up my spine, nestling semi-comfortably around the base of my neck. I can feel the blood rush to my face, but frankly, I don't really care.

"Aria and Sol!" Tela announces, and I can see the blush on her face. The drinks and the atmosphere must be getting to her.

Scratch that, everyone is purple, excluding myself, but I'm red. Close enough.

Aria smirks at me and grabs my arm, dragging me over to the bar, where she mixes two drinks out of a bunch of different colored bottle. The end result looks like a rainbow in a glass. "Drink this and follow me." She tilts her head back swallows messily, multi-colored liquid dripping from her lips, looking like she literally tasted the rainbow.

I knock mine back and struggle not to cough at the liquid fire that travels through my veins. Dear god, it's like I drank fucking nitro!

In the sparring room, I find Aria in a fighting stance, licking her lips and ready to pounce. "Let's do this!" She yells, diving forward, catching me completely off-guard.

Before I know it, she has my arms behind my head in a full nelson. I feel her warm breath in my ear as she speaks. "C'mon, babe, I thought you were tougher than that?" Then I feel her tongue running along my cheek.

I go slack in her grip and slip down, out of her grasp and roll, coming up to face her. "I'm not that easy!" I call to her, feeling the grin on my face.

She grins and pounces, her fingers crooked like claws. I'm on the defensive, deflecting her attacks, though they seem less geared for pain and much more for groping my bod.

I knock one of her strikes away and grab the other arm, snaking around her shoulders until my arm is around her neck, pulling her back until she's nearly doing a bridge with the ground.

Her front is curved and exposed, the shirt she's wearing riding up and exposing smooth purple stomach.

In a fair fight, I'd strike her in the stomach, drive the air from her lungs, bring her up and then knee her in the face, followed by the torso again, then back to the face, punch her in the throat and then knee her in the face again.

Then again, if this was a fair fight, she'd have destroyed me in seconds. I'm not that good.

However, this isn't a fair fight. This is a sexy fight. And it ain't a sexy fight without some sex. Otherwise, it'd just be a fight.

With that in mind, my fingers travel quickly down her stomach, dive past the belt of the pants she wears and rub against the lips of her nether-parts.

It's hot and slick and so _wet_. She's getting off on being restrained!

"Oh, no underwear, huh? Naughty queen…" I try my best to sound condescending, and the wetness that seeps around my exploring fingers tells me she likes it.

Aria bends, her legs coming up and wrapping around my neck. She pulls down and throws me across the room. I recover and roll, turning back to face her.

The purple of her cheeks is darkened, and she's panting and licking her lips, her eyes gleaming. "Oho, if Tela hadn't made the 'no sex' rule, you'd already be under me, screaming my name."

The hand that was in her pants comes to my face, her arousal still evident. The liquid on my hand is like syrup, sticky and sweet, and even a light shade of blue. As I lick it off my hand, commenting, "Tasty," Her gaze darkens.

Aria pounces, leaping through the air and landing on me, sending us rolling across the floor in a tangle of limbs. Her arms are constricting around my neck, and her mouth is ravaging mine, trying to establish her dominance over me, but fuck that.

I buck my hips up, dislodging the grip her legs have on my waist and pushing her into the air, where I twist and throw her away.

She lands on all fours like panther, growling and stalking around me. Suddenly, she leaps, right leg out and aiming for my stomach, trying to put me down and in a strangle-hold again. But, as sexy as that sounds, I have my pride. Time to show it.

I strafe, just a couple of inches, so that her leg misses my body, and I trap it between my torso and my underarm. Her other leg comes up, and I trap it as well as her arms wrap around my neck.

In that single second, we could've been mistaken for a loving couple, coming together joyfully after years apart.

Then, I threw my legs back and fell forward, crushing her flat between the mat and my body. I can feel the breath in her lungs rushing out over my face. Her eyes are wide with shock, her mouth is gaping for oxygen and I can feel her heart hammering in her chest, I can feel the wetness in her crotch spilling through her pants and onto mine.

I take advantage of her surprise and dive forward, our lips crashing into each other with bruising force. Even with my hips holding her down, her legs wrapped around my waist and my arms are holding hers down, her kiss is still fierce, and our tongues are battling for dominance.

I pull back and kind of head-butt her face to side, leaving her violet neck open and vulnerable, and attack, intermixing bites and kisses as she moans underneath me, our groins rubbing hotly against one another.

Using my teeth, I tear open part of her shirt and attack her heaving breasts. I take one of her nipples between my teeth and pull on it, shaking my head like a dog.

She stiffens under me, her fingers clawing into my back as she gasps. I nip and suck and bite her heaving orbs and Aria starts to shake, almost violently.

Her hand grasp onto the back of my head pulls me roughly up to her face, where her lips smash into mine. This kiss is different, more desperate and needy, and her wildly bucking hips tell me why.

Her hands yank my head aside and bare my neck to her, and she latches on, her teeth piercing through the skin and drawing blood. It actually stings, and I respond in kind, sinking my teeth into where her neck and shoulder meet and drawing blood and drinking the azure liquid down. It's surprisingly bitter.

That does it for both of us. The heat that spreads in my pants is nothing compared to the flood that gushes out of her, drenching both of our crotches in our release.

And then, it's like a fog lifts from my mind, and we're just clutching onto each other, panting and drenched in sweat and riding the aftershocks of possibly the strongest orgasm I've ever had.

Looking down at Aria, I can see my red blood staining her lips, standing out against the purple paint. "What…the hell…was in that drink?" I manage to ask between pants.

The smirk she gives me is mischievous and sexy, and I can feel my wedding tackle getting ready to fish again. "A little bit of this, a little bit of that."

She grabs the back of my head and brings our lips back together, swapping not only spit but also blood.

Fucking-A, that was the hottest goddamn thing I've ever done.

Cold water splashes over both of us, and we scramble apart in surprise, the sudden chill shocking.

There's Aethyta, her eyes wide and cheeks flushed. Tevos is there, licking her lips, and there are a few others as well, including Tela, who was holding the bucket and smirking.

"That was _fucking hot!_" Aethyta crows. "I can't wait for my turn!"

We all go back to the living room, joining the others, but before we sit down, Aria leans over and bites my earlobe, whispering through her clenched teeth, "This is far from over. Far, far from over, Sol."

The holo-bowl begins to spin, before it suddenly stops, the words "Shower Time!" flashing in its' place.

The Asari whoop and cheer, crowding up the stairs while shucking off clothing and gleefully parading around naked, and I'm suddenly struck by the fact that these are potentially thousand-year-old women acting like teenagers.

The reason Tela has such a large shower even though she lives by herself is made evident to me as everyone is pushed into the showers, hot water spraying from the heads and covering the writhing mass of blue and purple in liquid.

It's all like one big, smooth, sexy dance. We're all pressed together, the water acting as lubrication in the mass of silky flesh and moans.

My tan coloring stands out more than ever under the water, and I'm the only person there with something that sticks out, so naturally I get a good amount of attention, but I'm generous, and I give as good as I get, running my hands over whatever I can grab, arms, waists, legs, thighs, stomachs, breasts, rears, backs, heads and faces, anything I can grip and massage.

The soap gets passed around and suddenly, we're all slick and slippery, bubbles and foam everywhere. It eventually gets washed away, leaving us all squeaky clean (not at all), and the water cuts off. Hot air blasts out of the walls, the powerful currents drying us off in seconds.

White, fluffy towels get passed around, and we get wrapped up. I wrap mine around my waist, and I notice that only a few actually cover their chests, following my example and tying their towels around their hips, leaving their breasts to hang free; though I do notice that gravity doesn't really seem to affect their chests at all. Being naturally biotic race seems to work out for them quite well.

While I'm staring at their breasts, I also notice something else. I remember Donnelley in ME2 commenting on the size of Samara's chest, something about the older Asari being more ample as they get older. Looking about, I notice that the youngest Asari here, Tela, another with red face paint on her sky blue skin and one with black eyes and baby-blue skin, are indeed smaller in the chest than the older ones, though not by much, just enough to be noticed.

Tela points at four Asari, including Benezia, who discard their towels and lay themselves down on the tables scattered around the room, where they are promptly covered in food.

Benezia winks at me and beckons me over, pointing at the food covering her front. "Why don't you dive in, tiger?"

I shrug and comply. The food is delicious and filling, and the opportunity to tease Benezia is too easy to resist, but it's not enough for everyone. My unasked question is answered when, after all the food is consumed and the 'platters' licked clean, they switch out with others, and so on until everyone is comfortably full.

And then, dessert comes.

I hop onto the table next to Tela, deprived of my towel and just as naked as she is. The ladies scoop different desserts onto us; there's a couple sticky pastries, a few cups of cut fruit and chocolate. The biggest thing, however, is the ice cream that's dropped on my chest. The cold makes me jerk and nearly dislodges some fruit, but I hold it down admirably. The ice cream is blue and tastes (from what I was fed via mouth) that it's some kind of fruit, that tastes like blueberries, rum and white chocolate.

Looking over at Tela, I see that she has what looks like caramel ice cream on her front. Oh, get it. Blue and tan, that's what they were going for.

The ladies don't even bother with spoons, they just dive right with their mouths, and I'm assaulted by tongues all over my front.

Some enterprising Asari dumps a bunch of chocolate sauce on my crotch, and I can't help but rise to the occasion.

For awhile, I'm lost, cast adrift in a sea of teasing pleasure and moist, warm tongues that devour the food off of me.

I come back to myself once I feel the last dregs of ice cream licked away, and I slip off the table and wrap my towel back around my waist.

We move back to the couches, and the holo-bowl mixes names again, and we start to pair off. This time, I've got an Asari with dark blue skin and green eyes with dark blue crests. She pulls me to a wall and wraps my arms around her, leaning against the surface. "Come on, sugar. Make me feel good. Take it slow."

I kiss along her jaw and her cheeks, nibbling lightly at her neck and licking along the place where her ears are. Asari do have ears, they're just not as prominent on them as they are on humans, more hidden behind their jaws.

I move down her chest, licking and sucking until I get to her breasts, and I tease and nibble those too, drawing sexy little whimpers from her throat.

Our omni-tools chime, and the Asari in my arms sighs in disappointment. "Dammit, I forgot we had a time limit," She gripes to me. She leans up and kisses me softly, a very different kiss then what I've experience tonight. Her tongue gently slides between my lips and hugs my own, a sharp contrast to the battles I've had to fight previously.

When she lets go, I'm slightly disappointed. I wanted to feel the slow tenderness more. "My name's Carlya, sugar. Don't forget it, kay?" Carlya winks and pulls me back to the couch, and the names are shuffled once more.

This time it's Delria, and she knows what she wants. She falls down behind the couch, taking me down on top of her after draping our towels on top of us. "Nezia may have called dibs on you, but that doesn't mean there aren't other things we can do until I get my turn."

She flips us over, still with towels covering us. Then, she reaches down and grabs me, pulling on me until I'm trapped between our stomachs. And then slides up, and I can feel her nether lips wrapped around my stick, not penetrating, just holding.

Delria moves, panting and gasping quietly into my ear, her teeth nipping at the lobe. My hands are stroking up and down her back and along her ribs, occasionally sliding down to play with her breasts.

She moves just a little faster, hiding her moans in my mouth. The heat that engulfs my parts is intoxicating, and I think I'd give anything to just stick it in and go at it, but her muffled reassurances hold me back.

It gets to be too much for both of us, and I feel the spring uncoil in my groin and heat splash onto abdomen. Delria pants on top of me, looking down into my eyes. She winks and says, "Better hide the evidence, eh tiger?" She slides down and laps up our combined release until I'm all clean. But I'm a generous bastard, so I flip her over and clean her up too, just in time for our omni-tools to chime.

We sit at the couch, a drink is thrust into my hand as I check the time. Holy shit, it's only 9:30? I knock back the drink, and everything goes hazy.

The next few hours blur into faces, feelings, moans, groans, grips, grabs, gropes, wetness, hotness, warm tongues and warm bodies and a menagerie of flavors and textures that fill my mouth and rub on my body.

I'm dragged up the stairs at 11:30 by someone who looks very familiar and back into the bathroom, where all the towels are thrown into a chute to be washed by a VI. We're all standing in the bathroom, just kind of waiting, lightly touching, when the lights shut off abruptly.

The floor lights up in a multitude of flashing colors and heavy, tribal beats and sounds echo out of hidden speakers and we _dance_. The lights on the floor only go so far, and keep the parts from the belly-button up in darkness and silhouette.

We dance and writhe and grind, the sweat slicking our skin in the heat and the movement. I feel lips on mine and skin and I return it on those in reach. The music picks up and so does the dance until it's at a frenzied pace. As the crescendo nears, liquid starts spraying from the shower head, but it's not water.

It glows in the dark in varying shades of bright colors, not enough to cast the room into light, but enough to light up parts of our bodies. I see stomachs, legs and breasts and backsides and cheeks and lips illuminated by the glowing stuff, but the rest is lost in the grinding and writhing of our bodies as we lose ourselves in the beat.

The music drops, and then kicks back up until it's even wilder than before, something I didn't think was possible, but was. And now we're jumping, pounding the ground with our feet and chanting along with music.

Someone jumps on me, wrapping their legs around my waist and pressing us together intimately, to the point that I'm almost inside of her. There's a splash of yellow glowing liquid across her face, and I can just make out a purple eye.

It's Tela.

She drives forward, her lips meeting mine, our tongues fighting and thrashing in time to the music, but it's not like the others, save perhaps Carlya. It's…real, somehow. Not that the other's weren't real, but there's something different behind it, something I can't quite understand, but I like it.

And then she pushes away, looking me in the eye one more time before vanishing into the mass of bodies and movement and sweat.

Someone grabs my hand, but I can't see them through the lights and the glowing. I can feel my feet transition from the smooth tile of the shower to the slightly rougher tile of the rest of the bathroom. Someone wipes the sweat and grime and glowing away with a wet towel and discards it, leaving us in the inky blackness away from the lights.

Her hand is tight on mine as she drags me out of the bathroom and away from the crowd, into the light of the hallway. The pale blue skin belongs to only two Asari, and the other's not here.

Benezia drags me into my room and shuts the door, turning to me and wrapping her arms around me, our bodies pressing together. There's no fierceness in her gaze, only a deep-seated want and need.

Our first kiss is soft. There's no tongue, no fighting for dominance or battling, just our lips moving together and the feeling of being complete.

We separate, staring into each other's eyes. "When you bumped into me tonight, something in my blood and my soul sang." She spoke quietly. "I thought I've seen your face before, and it took me a while to realize that I have been seeing it in my dreams. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but right now, I don't really care."

Benezia leaned forward and kissed me gently. "I've never felt like this before," She admits. And I realize, neither have I. Never have I felt like this. "Outside of these nights, there can be nothing between us." She says, and I know it's true, but it doesn't stop my heart from pulsing sharply. And I can see that she feels the same, tears silently sliding down her face and dripping onto our chests.

"I know we can't see each other outside of this place, and it hurts me." Benezia murmurs, ignoring the wetness in her eyes and mine. "But I don't want to hurt anymore. So, even if just for tonight, even if just for tomorrow…please…be one with me…_I need you…_"

I don't say anything. I don't want to say anything, so I just nod, once. She smiles softly, becoming the most beautiful person I've ever seen, and she closes her eyes as we sit on the bed.

Thrills and tingles race up my spine, I can feel every strand of hair on my body stiffening and my skin erupt in gooseflesh.

I feel the most comforting warmth I've ever imagined wash over me, engulf me in heat and love and hold me close.

Benezia shuffles onto my lap, our sexes pressing together, our bodies wrapped in one another.

She pushes herself up, my tip just resting at her entrance…

…Her eyes snap open, the white sclera and blue irises replaced by an infinitely deep pool of black. She cries out as my length sinks into her and we finally meet.

"_Embrace Eternity!"_

And we become one…

….

**A/N: Confusing, huh? Don't worry, it's meant to be confusing. I've planned this out, so I know why all this is happening.**

**Now, this is important, **_**SO READ THESE LINES!**_

**This is not porn without plot, there is plot. I'm being very serious here. No emoticons or sarcastic wording at all. Everything has a reason, even those that seemingly don't, will be revealed later on. Otherwise, there'd be no sense of confusion and suspense, the reason readers come back to find out 'why did that happen?'**

**Now, this is also important: **_**SO PAY ATTENTION AGAIN! IF I SEE SOMEONE ASKING QUESTIONS RELATED TO SOMETHING I ALREADY ANSWERED, I'M GOING TO WRITE A VERY STERN LETTER TO YOU!**_

**The next chapter can go two ways:**

**One: I write out the next two days of the 'Relaxation party', which is basically a lot of sex, interspersed by conversations and exposition.**

**Two: I sum it up.**

**Either way, there will be a timeskip forward a couple of weeks, and we'll move on and get down to it.**

**So, even with just six chapters, the plot is starting to be pulled together, and connections are being made, many of which will be important in the future.**

**Read, Review and Enjoy!**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S. Don't expect other chapters to be bigger than this one unless they're really important. I'm trying to keep them to around 3,000 words for the sake of quality and expedience.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus.**


	7. It's Pretty Much Just Wild Sex

I was warm, inside and out, which is an odd feeling. I'd felt warm on the outside before, being covered by a blanket and such, but being warm on the inside…that was different. The feeling, you could say, was like being whole; getting a piece of yourself back when you didn't even know it was missing in the first place.

It felt nice.

My eyes flutter open, cringing in anticipation of the harsh sunlight poking into my eyes and the hangover headache pounding in my skull. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that isn't happening to me.

I can't feel pain, and that apparently means I don't feel hangovers.

That's fucking awesome. My fried nerves are now twice as awesome as they were last night!

Speaking of last night…

Turning my neck, I spot the source of the outside warmth. Benezia. Her face is lax and peaceful, a small, contented smile curling her lips. In the morning light, she's just so beautiful that I want to run my hands over her cheeks and just feel her skin.

I actually am doing that, and I stop when she starts to stir and groan. She deserves her rest, especially after last night. The first go was soft and gentle, tender and loving, even if we'd just met that night. We went at it slow, savoring it and making it last.

It didn't stop there, though. We went after it maybe three more times before we'd fallen asleep, and the pleasant stickiness around my abdomen and crotch was evidence of other times when I was asleep. Sometimes, I'd wake and see someone's face above mine, teeth clenched and hips thrusting, feeling heat engulfing my member.

Looking around, I can see maybe seven Asari on and around the bed, sleeping on each other, acting as pillows and blankets.

I manage to slip out of the grip Benezia has on my front and the grasp Delria has on my back admirably, leaving both slightly frowning at the absence of heat.

I grab a pair of shorts and shirt, but no underwear. I don't think I'll need it today, or that it'll get much use doing its job.

The hot water spraying from the shower head washes away the night's exertions. I may not be able to feel pain, but I do get tired.

After drying myself and dressing, I creep down the hallway, avoiding the snoozing women in the hall and peek into Tela's room. There she is, lying in the center of her bed with two Asari on either side, using her as a pillow. Tevos is sleeping at the foot of the bed, leaning her back against it with her head lolling back onto the mattress, an empty bottle lying on its' side next to her.

I reach out and nudge her leg with my foot, drawing a quiet groan from the Asari Councilor. "Go 'way…" she mumbles, listlessly swatting at my leg.

It's too damn cute. I want to make some kind of cooing sound, but I'm a man, and men don't coo.

"Awww…" Escapes my mouth before I can think to stop it.

Dammit.

"Leave me 'lone…sleepin'…"

"Alright, Snoozles, I'll let you sleep." I mutter to her, and she's already asleep.

I creep down the stairs and into the kitchen, where I find quite the sight.

Aria T'Loak is sprawled out on the island, one hand cushioning her head, the other dangling off the side with a bottle nearby, and her legs spread in different directions, leaving exactly nothing to the imagination, as she's as butt-ass naked as the rest of the people in the house.

I can't help but look her over. I am a man, and she's naked, could you blame me? The purple of her skin is really alluring, and the harsh lines her face contains when she's doing business are smoothed away.

There's an ovular marking on the left side of her neck, little dark blue scabs marking where my teeth were buried in her flesh last night.

I use a spoon's reflection to peer at the left side of my own neck, and I'm surprised to see an oval made up of little scars on my neck. It should have healed over, but I don't mind. It's badge of honor for me. I took Aria T'Loak on, slammed her into the ground and pretty much made her my bitch. The bite at the end is a standing challenge, as were the words she whispered into my ear afterwards. We'd meet, we'd fight for dominance, and we'd just be animals with each other. It was simple, and sometimes, that's all you really need.

I start on making a pot of coffee, very glad that Tela's is 'Biotic-Sized', because I can just tell that we're going to steam through a good portion today and probably tomorrow. While that's brewing, I crack some eggs (about twenty), cut some onions, shred some cheese and cook some ham, or at least the Asari equivalents of those, and make me an omelet or two, and make a few more for the others, though I'm sure I'll be the only one awake for awhile. I've always been an early riser, even after last nights' strenuous activities.

Looking over at Aria's smooth purple stomach with my omelet in on a spatula, I'm half tempted to slap my breakfast on her abs and eat it right there, but I'm not a dick…

"Uugh, my head…"

…And she's waking up anyway.

She pushes herself up so that she's sitting on the counter, looking around blearily. She sniffs like a dog, her eyes zoning onto me in seconds. Even through her blasting hangover, Aria still manages to smirk at me challengingly. "Good morning, stud. Ready for round two? This time, I won't lose."

The smirk on my face matches hers in feral quality. "Not quite. I'd rather have a good meal before plowing you into the counter."

Her smirk widens. "Plowing me, you say?"

I chuckle and hand her a plate with an omelet and a cup of coffee. "I'm going to watch the sunrise. You can join me if you like." And I leave her there to sit on porch with my eggs and coffee.

I'm pleasantly surprised when she comes out a minute later with her food and drink, and even more so when she sits in my lap.

We watch the sunrise together, eating and drinking. There's no need to talk. We just enjoy the warmth from each other.

It's not even romantic, though that's an undercurrent, but it's nice.

"Do you think we could be friends, outside of this?" I ask, our plates discarded, my hand resting around her back and nestled on her hip.

She thinks, biting her lip. "Maybe," Aria admits. "We're alike, more than we show to others. That drink, had you been like anyone else, would've kicked your ass. Instead, it made you fight like an animal, just like me."

She scootches back, planting herself more firmly into my chest, letting my hand come up and rest on her stomach. "Not in public, though. I have an image to uphold, and I can't have friends when I'm the Queen of Omega. My enemies would use you to get to me, and I don't want that to happen, for selfish and personal reasons." Aria says bluntly.

"I can understand that." I say, and I really can understand where she's coming from. I'd hate to have a friend hurt because of me, even more so if they were hurting them to hurt me.

But there is something else on my mind. "So…can you tell me what this 'relaxation party' is? I'm kind of confused."

She looks back at me a smirk on her face. "Aww," she coos teasingly, "you're so cute when you're stupid."

Aria laughs. "Hah! The relaxation party is a long-standing tradition among Asari, back when we were separated into tribes. The Matriarchs, the hardest workers, would gather together in one spot and spend three days dancing, partying and fucking. Originally, it was a ritual, for crops or something, don't know, don't care."

She leans back, stretching her legs out on top of mine and pretty laying on me. "After we started expanding into the stars, the Matriarchs' workload got that much bigger and worse, so instead of the ritual happening every three centuries, it happened every two. When we found the Citadel and made contact with the Turians and later the Salarians, with how long we'd been on the scene, everyone looked to us to take charge, and we did."

Her head comes back, resting in the crook of my neck. "The Asari have been practically in charge for thousands of years, and it takes its' toll on us. We're not robots, we need to have fun, drink, go to wild parties and have one-night stands, but we, the ones in charge, can't. Because we're the example the Maidens should follow, even if we'd rather be back in the Maiden stage."

Aria grabs my left hand, which had been rubbing her stomach, and pushes it into her shorts and on to her bottom lips. I oblige the unspoken command and start rubbing slowly. It's not as if I mind, and I'll get her back later when I plow her into the floor.

She sighs as my hand goes to work, rubbing and stroking her lips. "So, the relaxation party happens every century now. I wouldn't be surprised if it started happening every fifty years soon. It's like a drug. Here, away from all the problems heaped onto our shoulders, we can be free. No one brings their problems here, no prejudice, no politics and definitely no pride. Freedom, in its' basest, simplest form."

I can see her teeth digging into her bottom lip. She's trying hold in the moans she's getting from my fingers. Well, that won't do.

Asari are a lot like human women, with differences of course. Their ears are smaller and hidden, they have semi-rigid scalp crests as opposed to hair, and their skin is varying shades of blue and purple.

Another difference, a more private one, is their lady-parts. They can't get pregnant through sperm or reproductive fluid. When they meld with someone, they gather genetic variance from their partner and fertilize their own egg, with genetic samples from the mate.

However, that's not what I was going for, I just got off track. Asari have three clitorises. They're smaller than a human woman's, but much more sensitive.

And that's what I started working on with Aria. My fingers are dancing over her lips while my thumb is rubbing those small bundles of nerves, and I can see that it's working as Aria begins to pant.

Time to finish her off. I move my fingers up and pinch on her clitorises, tightly enough to cause some pain.

Aria gives a muffled groan and floods her shorts with blue syrup. This really proves to me that Aria is both a masochist and a sadist, an odd combination.

She watches as I bring my hand up to my mouth and lick the light blue arousal away. It really is sweet. "Oh, stud, you're going to get it later, that's a promise."

The grin on my face is both challenging and expectant. "So, what do the three days of a 'relaxation party' consist of?"

Aria holds up a hand and starts listing. "The first day is pretty much just teasing and dry humping, plus the dance at night. The day after is casual sex day, with everyone having sex with everyone else, but no really big activities except the dance, which is much more sexual than last nights'. The third day is orgy day. Non-stop sex all day and all night. After that, everyone leaves and goes back to their job."

"How would the orgy last all day and night? Wouldn't we have to take breaks?" I ask somewhat incredulously. Seriously, I fucking love Asari.

Aria smiles at me ferally. "What do you think the dances are for? That glowing stuff that shot out of the showers last night is actually a secret Asari drink that provides nourishment and stamina. Last nights' little spray was just to refresh everyone for today, though it doesn't seem to be enough for everyone else. Tonight, we're going to bathe in the stuff."

Her smile is wide and lustful. "All of our bodies, covered from head to toe in golden liquid, thrusting and moaning…" She shudders in my lap, and I struggle not join her, but she can feel my man bits getting acquainted with her butt cheeks.

"So, someone's happy to see me!" Aria rolls over, straddling my hips and pressing us together, and we stare into each other's eyes.

Something fills the air, and I can see it in her eyes that she feels it too. "You're thinking about what would happen if we kissed right now, aren't you? No animals, just kissing?"

She nods, a shrewd look on her face. "You are too."

Suddenly, I feel hesitant, and so does she, if the gleam in her eyes is anything to go by.

My hands rest on her shoulders, pushing her forward as I lean up.

Our lips meet softly as the sun breaks into the sky, bathing us in golden light as we tenderly kiss. It was romantic, it was one of those moments that you reminisce on when you're older as the moment in time when you found your soul mate…

It was wrong.

We break apart, staring at each other. "That was weird, wasn't?" I ask.

Aria nods. "Fuck yeah it was. It was nice, I guess, but fuck, I felt like a bitch just doing it."

I push her off my body and onto the floor, breaking the moment like a Krogan in a china shop. I push out of the chair and sling Aria over my shoulder to her surprise. I carry her through the house, into the sparring room, and toss her on to floor and then lock the door.

When I turn back, a feral grin is splitting her face as she gets into a fighting stance. We don't need to say anything. Here and now, words are for pussies.

"Let's get it on!"

Aria leaps forward as I do, and we meet right in the middle. It's not clean. We bite and scratch and claw and punch and that's just now.

My right hand comes up lands on her cheek, tilting her head back from the force. I take the opening and grab her shirt and rip the shoulder away, exposing more violet flesh to my gaze.

Her foot impacts into my stomach and drives the air from my lungs, bending me over, and I feel her nails rake across my back and rip away part of my shirt.

With my head down, I charge forward, catching her in the stomach with my shoulder and carrying her across the room, tearing at her shorts as I go, just as she tears at mine over my back.

I stop and drop forward, slamming her into the ground, but she's not having any of that, and her legs come up and launch me away from her.

Looking at her across a little space, I can see that her clothes are in ruin, scraps of fabric not even covering her chest, and her shorts are falling apart even now.

I'm in much the same position. My shirt I pretty much gone, and my shorts might as well be a speedo. We both move at the same time, ripping the last of the cloth and discarding it.

We're both aroused, and we can see it. I'm sprung, and that easy to see, and the wetness trailing from her lips glistens on her inner thighs. Scratches and bruises decorate both of our bodies, but fuck it.

We charge across the distance. My hands land on her shoulders as hers do on mine and we struggle, trying to push each other back, but we're in a stalemate.

Suddenly, Aria jumps and encircles her legs around my head, pressing my face right into her crotch. I know she's going to try and throw me, but I counter with the obvious attack.

My lips, teeth and tongue dive into her lips and I feast, licking, sucking and biting and her lips and her inside walls, with my arms fastened around her hips to hold her in place.

Aria manages to push off, and the sudden movement is surprising to the point that I can't react when she wraps her arms around my chest and hip-tosses me to the floor.

I barely get a chance to react as she pounces on me. We both gasp as her lips engulf me all the way in one go, and even her walls are trying to strangle the life out of me.

Even then, we still fight. I struggle to throw her off as her legs lock with mine, and her hands on my shoulders hold me down even as she attacks my neck and face with lips and teeth.

I finally break my legs free and kick up, catching her hips and throwing her over my head. Using my momentum, I follow her and land on top, driving myself harshly back into her folds, and we both love it. She thrashes under me, our hips crashing together as the sounds of slapping flesh echo through the room, joined by the harsh pants and growls the come from our mouths.

Aria twists on the ground and dislodges me, rolling over until she's on top, but I follow through and send her rolling across the floor until she stops on her stomach, and I'm already pouncing after her.

I land on top of her back and spear into her. Aria squeals like struck animal and stiffens, her eyes nearly popping out of her head and her mouth wide. I take a moment to wonder why, and realize that the hole I'm in is a lot dryer, tighter and hotter.

Whoops. I'd done this before, and I know that it hurts when done wrong, and damn, was it done wrong. Luckily, she's a masochist, and this only drives her crazier.

I pound down into her mercilessly, not holding anything back and she howls, literally howls at the feelings. I can feel her stiffen and shudder, stiffen and shudder as she has orgasm after orgasm. It seems that I found her weak spot.

As much I'm enjoying this, it time to end this battle and mark it a victory for me.

I pull out as she stiffens again and flip her over, and she can't resist as I plunge back into her flooded folds and slam into her.

Aria's legs wrap around my waist and she seems to give up, her arms around my shoulders and her tongue in my mouth as we kiss sloppily. I pick her up and slam her into the nearest wall and go for the final stretch. I'm actually surprised I've managed to hold off this long.

With one final, huge thrust, I let go and spray my ending inside of her as she shudders and drenches our crotches.

We're left here, me holding her against the wall with her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist, our combined release dripping to the floor. We're panting in exertion, our faces flushed and sweaty, and even then, I can't refrain from a witty one-liner.

"'Casual Sex Day', huh?"

…

When the others begin to wake up, they come down to find me wearing another pair of shorts and cooking breakfast for them. Aria is lying on the couch with her rear in the air as the medi-gel I slathered on the inside of her ass goes to work healing her abused hole.

"Omelet?"

…

**A/N: Since everyone was so into the first option, here is the first part of the second day. The next part will finish off the second day, and the chapter after that will be the third day and after.**

**Aria and Sol aren't 'one-and-only's, so their relationship will reflect that. They don't love each other, but they can be wild with each other and that's what brings them together. Aria's the Queen and Sol is challenger, and that's what connects them. They can cut the creature loose with each other.**

**I won't lie. By the time you start reading this chapter and review, I'll have already started working on the next one. No lie, it took me an hour and a half to write this all down with a break for coffee and breakfast because I started writing almost immediately after I woke up.**

**I have plans to make this story about thirty-to-thirty-five chapters long, and I have secret to reveal: **_**BIG ANNOUNCEMNT, BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!**_

**This story will end before ME 1, and the sequel will follow pretty much immediately. **

**Read, Review and Enjoy.**

**If you have question you really need answered, too bad, I'll be writing.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S.: But seriously, if you have important question, PM me.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	8. The One That Understands

So it turns out that, Matriarch Tevos was a badass at Citadel Wars: Call of the Spectre. She ripped through the online opposition with the amount of poise and precision with which she faced political rivals…

Along with a healthy amount of cursing and insults.

"Yeah, suck it, Spectr3Kill3r23! Your shitty Turian Engineer is no match for my Asari Master Biotic, bitch!" Tevos crowed at the screen as her character ripped a Turian in half with her biotics.

"Spirits Dammit! You've got to be cheating! My Overload should have stunned you for five seconds, that wasn't even one!" A flanging voice yelled on the other end of the connection.

Through other microphone, we could hear a door open and another voice yelling. "Vakar-is that CotS? Why didn't you tell me we got the new copy?"

"Oh, uh, Executor, uh, I thought you were busy…"

"Bullshit, you now I always have time Call of the Spectre! Wow, you're getting your ass kicked by this Master Biotic. Give the me controller, I know how to beat her!"

Ten minutes later, the Executor is also screaming in surprise and disbelief. "WHAT?! I shot you in the head! This game is so unrealistic!"

Tevos hops onto the coffee table and dances victoriously. "Yeah! Not one of you can step to this! Kiss my shiny blue ass!" She tosses the controller to one of the ladies sitting on the couch and dives on me, her tongue thrust into my mouth on impact.

After I plowed Aria (like I said I would, twice), the rest of the Asari had started waking up. I had already made breakfast and coffee, and I received more than one or even ten appreciative gropes.

As the day's gone on, I've realized that when Aria labeled today as 'Casual Sex Day', she wasn't fucking kidding. Every once in awhile, one of the ladies would approach another and pull her away, returning maybe twenty minutes later flushed, panting and sweaty. Hell, sometimes, they wouldn't leave the room; they'd get right down to business right then and there, moaning and bucking right in front of everyone.

And no one even gave a fuck. Most of the time, that would even lead to mini sex parties.

I've said it before, but I love Asari.

And it's not as if I'm not involved. Jesus, I'm involved. I've been pulled away by at least half of the women here, and it's not even noon yet.

At some point, it had turned into game day. Tela had broken out Galaxy of Fantasy, which had turned into Call of the Spectre at some point, where Tevos had taken over and kicked all sorts of ass.

Tevos withdrew her tongue from my mouth and let me breathe as she grabbed a bottle of Love Wine and stepped off of me. "Follow me in a moment, okay?" She winked and skipped up the stairs, gaining a few whistles and catcalls from the others.

Everyone wore maybe two pieces of clothing at best, something easily discarded and found again and slipped on afterwards.

I'm thirsty, so I think I'll get a drink and then find Tevos. Carlya is lying on top of the bar, pouring drinks on her body and letting the others drink off of her. "Hey sugar!" She calls to me, crooking a finger and trying not to moan and writhe too much. "You look thirsty. Why don't you drink from my…fountain?"

She made it clear what she was talking about when she upended a bottle on her stomach, the drink pouring down her stomach and between her legs.

Well, I do have time.

Carlya moans as my tongue traces its' way up her abdomen, licking away all traces of liquor. I very gently, teasingly touch the undersides of her breasts before I go down, stopping at her belly button and drinking, making her giggle. Those giggles turn into groans as I penetrate through her lips and drink from her source, her slick walls massaging my tongue as I probe as deep as I can.

I take the bundles of nerves at the top of her lips and suck on those, and Carlya goes crazy, thrashing and moaning. Her juice floods into my mouth and I suck it down, letting the rest splash on my face and neck.

Turning away from the quivering Asari, I grab the nearest woman and lay a kiss on her, trading my spit and juice with her. She pulls away and licks the release away from my face and neck and winks. "Mmm, tasty."

I think I've spent enough time, so I hop up the stairs and search for Tevos. In Tela's room, there are four lovely blue ladies, including Delria and Aethyta are in a square shape, with their faces buried between the other's legs so that everyone is getting busy. I'm tempted to join in, but I've left Tevos long enough. Aria is sleeping my bed, holding my pillow like a teddy bear, so that just leaves the bathroom.

The shower's been changed to a large bathtub, and it's filled with steaming water. I can see Tevos stretched out on the side, with her arm dangling over the edge. Her face is relaxed and peaceful as the hot water does its' work on her body. Her eyes open and spot me, and with a gentle smile, she beckons me over.

The atmosphere is peaceful, quiet and Zen. I can see two other Asari actually sleeping in the tub, snoring quietly. I toss my shorts aside and slip in, trying not to disturb the tranquility of the tub. Tevos pulls me down in the middle of the bench and lays her head down on my chest and wraps her arms around me, not saying a thing. I pull her close and let the steam lull me into a doze, the warmth and comfort of her smooth body only adding to the effects.

"The wild sex is nice," She murmurs quietly, her hand softly rubbing my chest. "But I much prefer things like this. Quiet, peaceful and romantic."

"It is nice." I say, and I do agree. There's the time when you want to go wild, and then there's the time you want to just take it slow. "It's a shame it has to end."

Tevos nods, but I can feel her lips frown. I stroke down her side, just enjoying the feel of her while I can, while she does the same, her fingers mapping out every plain of my chest.

After a few minutes of light touches, she speaks again. "It doesn't have to end."

This is surprising to me. "What do you mean?"

She doesn't talk, she just strokes the spot where my hearts beats the strongest. "I'm lonely…" Tevos admits quietly. It must be hard for her to say, because I feel a tear land on my chest, the cold shocking against the warmth of the water. "I know you're not supposed to bring your problems to the party, but I feel comfortable with you. You don't beat around the bush or try to throw people off, you go straight for what you want. It's such a change from all the politics on the Council…I don't want to lose it."

Even if they're blue, the Asari are just as human as the rest of us. Even the ones who look like nothing can shake them get lonely and afraid. Humanity isn't just for humanity.

"It because you're powerful, isn't it?" I guess, speaking softly.

"Yeah. Being pretty much the highest rank you can be for my people drops a lot on my shoulders, and I rarely get a break." I can feel her heart start to pound in her chest. How stressful is her job that even talking about it sets her pulse racing? "No one approaches me even when I do get some time off because of my position, so I can't even meet people who aren't trying to work some kind of angle on me."

Wow. Suddenly I'm very glad that I avoided politics whenever I could. It sucks.

"I know you've probably heard this from others, but…I really don't care about what you do for living." It's not a lie. In a moment like this, where she's vulnerable, where she's spilling her secrets to someone she barely knows…I'm not a scumbag. The job must be worse than I thought if she's telling me, a guy who's made out with her and felt her up and shared only a few conversations with, about her fears. I can't pay that back with dishonesty.

Tevos slides up a bit, staring me in the eyes, searching through my soul to see the truth. "Do you really mean that? Even if I go against human interests? Even if I put the Asari first?"

My hands come up to grasp her face, my palms resting on her cheeks, and I pull her face closer until our forehead are pushed together and we're millimeters away from our eyes physically meeting. "I. Don't. Care. You do what you have to do. I know that there are good people among the humans, just as there are among the Asari and the other races. To be honest, I really prefer the Asari, and just because every one I've met is beautiful; that's just a bonus. You seem…realer, to me, than the humans I remember. And I love that about your species."

There are tears lining her eyes, but doubt still lingers. "How do I know you're telling the truth?" Tevos whispers, her voice barely carrying above the small splashes of water.

This is a big leap of faith for me. This could either backfire horribly, and I end up not being able to do anything and the galaxy burns…or, I can gain an ally and confidante, one who can really help me. And, I can comfort someone who knows the pain of loneliness like I do.

"Meld with me." I say, gently. "I know that when you meld with people you can gain insight into their mind. I want you to see just how sincere I am being."

I don't give her time to answer, I move forward, pressing my lips into hers, pouring my sincerity into the kiss. I don't know what is pushing me to do this, to go this far just to comfort someone. But it's not a voice in my head…it's more like an instinct, telling me to trust this lonely woman and let her know that she is not alone.

She hesitates, but returns the kiss, her lips softly moving over mine. It never goes beyond gently passionate; there's no thrashing or fighting, it's only comfortable and reassuring.

Tevos slides over me, straddling my hips and pressing us together. She adjusts herself until I'm at her entrance and slowly sinks down, moaning together with me.

Her hands creep up my face, and her thumbs peel my eyelids back until I'm staring into her eyes. I only have a second to notice that her irises are pale blue with flecks of green as her pupils overtake her eyes and turn them into pools of the deepest black that I can't help but get lost in.

I can see my memories flashing across our shared vision. I can see the good times, the bad, the horrible and the amazing and she sees them too.

At this point, Tevos knows who I am, where I came from and how I got here. I can see that she understands my motives, and that she agrees with them. I can feel her feel me.

And we understand each other perfectly.

She starts going deeper into the meld, seeing my sincerity. I don't feel myself in her anymore, and she doesn't feel me in her anymore. We don't feel the thrusts and the rocking.

All we feel is pleasure, like being in the center of a star that won't burn us.

And then, the star goes super-nova, waves of pleasure and feelings cascading over both of us.

We finally come back to ourselves. We're back in the bath. Tevos is in my arms, her arms around my shoulders. Her head falls to rest in my neck, and our breathing starts to even out.

"I'll do whatever I can to help, Sol. I won't be able to do much at first, but I will do what I can." Tevos whispers, the promise evident in her voice.

"We'll have to be subtle with our relationship." I say, even though it's obvious. "We'll have to pretend we don't know each other in public. But, when ever you need me, I'll be there as fast as I can. I swear."

We kiss once more, and settle into the water, enjoying each others' warmth.

Sometimes, nothing else has to be said.

…

The rest of the day is much like the start. Everyone has fun casually being sexual with each other. We do body shots, orgasm contests, we eat food off of each other. There was even one point where I walked out with a helmet covering my crotch, took my hands away and left the headgear hanging on my arousal.

I won't lie, that was really fun.

There's tension and expectation in the air as the sun falls. It starts to go from casual to wild, and it picks up more and more until the lust in the air saturates everything.

Then, Tela waves her hands and directs everyone up stairs to the bathroom. We rush up the stairs, through the hallway, and into to the bathroom, which is still in bath tub mode, and we gather inside of it.

Like last night, the lights snap off, leaving us in complete blackness, only the sounds of flesh touching and aroused pants as a sign that there are other people around us.

The shower heads begin to spray, but unlike last night, all of the liquid is gold. A shimmering liquid gold that dances with light and energy.

It bathes us, but doesn't light us up. Where it lands, the only parts in the immediate area are illuminated, leaving only silhouettes with splashes of gold.

The music starts, thumping and pulsing in time with our hearts, and we dance in the golden rain, our feet pounding the ground, our bodies meshing together, all of us moving to the same rhythm.

The showers stop, leaving the gold around our calves. It splashes up and around as we dance, showering us in droplets of golden energy.

Our hearts beat as one. We all feel as one. It like everyone of melded with everyone else at the same time. I don't know if I'm fucking one of the girls, and to be honest, I don't really care. Right here, right now, I've never felt anything like this.

We are one.

One heart hammers together.

One body with life thundering through our veins.

One mind with no thoughts, only passions and feelings rushing through our heads, pounding at our skull. Our instincts are screaming at us to _let it all_ go.

And we do.

...

There's moaning and gasping and groaning and screaming that never stops. I'm always inside someone. Whether it's their mouth, their asses or their nether lips, I can never tell. I can feel myself release again and again, in someone, on someone, around someone, I don't know.

There's only heat and feeling and pounding and thrusting. Someone is writhing under me one minute, and the next, someone's bucking on top of me, screaming in pleasure.

My tongue and my fingers never stop tasting and digging and licking and sucking and it's such a pleasurable torture that I never to stop but at same time, all I want is sleep.

It seems like an eternity that we go on and on, never stopping for food or drink, even when Sun rises and peaks and descends, drowning the world in black.

And suddenly, it's over.

We stop. Almost immediately, nearly everyone drops to the floor, sleeping even before their bodies stop moving.

Except for me. I'm still awake, but all I want to is join them in the realm of peace and dreams.

A body slides over mine, just as slicked with sweat as I am, making balance a challenge. Looking up, I can see that it's Benezia. Her face is flushed so hard she seems to have turned purple.

"Do you...still...have one left...just for us?" She asks, desperation in her voice.

I want to say no, that it's too painful to go on any longer, but my body ignores me and my raw, burning penis rises to the occasion.

Her smile is understanding, and I realize that is even more painful for her.

Benezia winces as she guides me into her swollen and bruised lips and sinks down on top of me, my length reaching the farthest it go inside of her. Her eyes blacken into bottomless voids, and she doesn't even try to be quiet.

Her voice is cracked and raw as she screams, _"Embrace_ _Eternity!"_

Our very beings melt together and become one, trapping us together in a whirling maelstrom of relentless, painful pleasure that radiates from our very souls.

It ends in an explosion that tears at our minds and very nearly shreds them beyond recognition.

I can feel darkness creeping over my vision, my mind crying out for sleep. I can see Benezia faltering on top of me, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, her body going limp on top of mine.

A hidden surge of strength, my very last, lets me bring my hands up and weakly grasp her face. I pull her down and our lips meet one more time...

And now, I feel nothing.

...

**A/N: three chapters in two days, that a personal record for me. Go team.**

Anyway, I decided to mesh the last two days together, not only to get through it, but to move on with the story and start building my character into a certifiable badass. It'll take awhile to get to that point, but not too long.

I would also like to thank everyone who's reviewed and followed this story. You guys are awesome.

Next chapter, we go two months ahead.

Read, Review, and Enjoy.

Stay Awesome.

~Soleneus.

P.S.: This is probably going to the sexiest part of the story, not to say that there won't be sex in the future, just not at this volume. Also, I typed this last part on my Kindle, so any mistakes are do to the retarded aurocorret.

Stay Awesome Some More.

~still Soleneus.


	9. Make a Name for Yourself

It's been two months since the party.

When I awoke, I was alone, dressed and clean in my bed. I found out from Tela that I'd been asleep for three days, and that I was not to speak of what happened during the party to anyone.

It was the most important rule that has kept the relaxation parties a secret from the galaxy at large, even in this day and age.

'Bring nothing in, take nothing back.' It meant that I was supposed to act like I'd never even met any of the Matriarchs. As far we were concerned, we didn't know each other in any fashion.

It was a hard pill to swallow, but I understood. How would the galaxy react if it found out that it's leaders had wild group sex every century?

And it's not as if I didn't gain anything out of it either. The first time I checked my omni-tool after waking up, I'd found a few messages from Aria and Tevos.

The messages from Aria included her extranet address and actual address along with a warning: Don't fuck with me. I have just as much blackmail on you as you do me. I knew that was a lie, but I got the underlying message. _Don't tell anyone, they'll use you to get to me and damage my reputation._

The message from Tevos contained a secure channel that could only go to my address or hers, and a small note promising that she would meet me in a couple of months.

And after that, things went back to normal, I guess. I trained from dawn to dusk and back again, getting better with my favored weapons and learning more control over my biotics; every technique I used still exploded, but at least I could lift my targets for awhile.

Nelon had sent a few programs over containing his Incinerate and Overload programs along with a few tips for easier usage of said modules. Thanks to him, I'd gotten pretty good with tagging targets and shocking them or lighting them on fire.

According to Tela, I was better, but not as good as an Asari Commando. Across the board, I'd scored eighty-five as an average with Pistols, Assault Rifles and Shotguns in combat tests, such as running-while-firing. My favorite was one where there were many enemies down field with cover dotted around the holographic landscape. The enemies were made to look like many species I'd be fighting later, like human, Krogan and Vorcha.

In fact, I'm actually doing the program right now. I should probably stop reminiscing. The holo-bullets the enemies fired didn't hurt, with the obvious factor of me not being able to feel pain, but they lowered my score.

Popping up over cover, my left arm's already coming up, omni-tool glowing as I launched an Overload at the Krogan with an assault rifle peppering my cover.

The orange enemy thrashed in pain, and I took the opportunity to land two bursts from my rifle into his head. He fell to the ground and faded away, a few letters taking his place and forming my end score.

_**User: Soleneus**_

_**Accuracy: 86.57%**_

_**Time Elapsed: 8 minutes, 10 seconds**_

_**Enemies Killed: 12**_

_**Damage Taken: Light Injuries**_

_**Total Score: 89%**_

Sweet. That's a new record for me. I've managed to shave two minutes off of my time.

I made the field deactivate and started back up the hill to the house. Tela had left on 'Spectre Business' a couple of days ago, and I've found that her house is really lonely with no one but me in it.

The sun was high, and I was hungry after four hours of gun drills, so I make myself some lunch, cram that in my cram-hole get down to working out in the gym.

I'm on my fifth set of chin-ups when my omni-tool chimes. I hop down from the bar and open it, finding a message from Carlya.

_Sol-_

_I know we're not supposed to know each other, but I need your help. Meet me in town._

_-Carlya_

Interesting. She sounds desperate and in need of help.

I shower, throw on my jacket and hop in the sky-car and drive into town. It's not very busy this time of day, as the working stiffs have just left after having lunch. I think I'll buy some groceries on the way back, I am running low on coffee.

Down on the street, I can see an Asari waving at me, beckoning me down. I land the car and turn it off, stepping out to meet Carlya, who's wearing the hood up on her jacket and glancing around furtively.

"Carlya, hey. What's the problem? You sounded panicked in your message." My greeting doesn't seem to be acknowledged, as I find a pair of blue hands grasping the front of my shirt, pulling us face-to-face.

"Where's the Spectre?" Her voice is panicked and her eyes never stay in one spot, always searching.

"Tela's been gone on business for a few days. What's going on?" I ask insistently, my hands on her own, stopping her from running away.

"The Eclipse!" Carlya whispers, her eyes wide. "They're gunning for me!"

"Alright, come on. We need to get off the streets." I pull her across the street into a mid-level restaurant, where we're seated immediately. The waiter hands over the menus and departs quickly, but we never even glance at them. "What is this about, Carlya? Why are the Eclipse after you?"

She sighs wearily, running her hand over her face. "Listen, the Eclipse have their fingers in a lot pies. One of them is trafficking. The slave trade. I didn't know this until just recently!" Carlya says, spotting the disturbed look on my face. "If I knew, I never would have joined! Delria, my mother, helped me get in just before she left, and as the Eclipse changed, they kept it from me. I didn't know about any of this!"

My left hand comes up to rest on hers, and I squeeze it to let her know I'm right here. She smiles gratefully at me. "But why are they after you?" I need to know exactly why they're chasing her. Maybe I can resolve this peacefully.

Her eyes dart around the room, searching for threats. "I found out that a group was going to Kar'Shan for a pick-up and bringing the slaves illegally onto Thessia. I warned the authorities, and they were waiting for them at port. They some how found out that I was the one who blew the whistle and now they're coming for me! That's why I need the Spectre to help me! She can get me into witness protection, get me safe!"

Nodding, I get her up from the table and start towards the exit. "Alright, I'll send her a message. In the meanwhile, I should get you to her house and watch out for you."

Carlya nods happily and starts to jog to the exit with me.

The maitre-d screams and dives to the floor as men and women in yellow and black armor storm into the restaurant with weapons drawn. "Get down!" The leader yells, a man with black hair and stumble on his chin. "We're looking for an Asari, white stripes on the crests! We know she's here, and she's all we want! Don't interfere or you'll be filled full of holes. You, you, you and you, go search the rest of the place! Find that bitch!"

Four yellow-armored people break off from the rest of the group, going into the back to search for Carlya, leaving four others and the leader in the main part of the restaurant.

The leader directs the others to search and moves outside to make sure we don't try and escape.

"What are we going to do?!" Carlya screams quietly, her hands smashing her face out of shape.

"Wait here. When the bullets start flying, stay down." I tell her, peeking over the counter I threw us behind. The four here are moving in, kicking over tables with shotguns ready.

They're moving closer, and the closest is an Asari. The rest are spread out around us, within five feet of each other.

The Asari comes closer, smashing a table in half.

Three seconds.

She kicks aside a glass in frustration, spraying shards of glass across the floor.

Two seconds.

She's right next to the counter, within my arm's reach. Blue energy coalesces around my right arm.

One.

I shoot up from my crouch, arm lashing out and releasing a wave of biotic power at chest-height. The wave bowls over the Asari in front of me and the three other Eclipse, sending them to the ground, but the Asari is already recovering.

I jump over the counter, my foot connecting with her chest and kicking the air out of her lungs. I'm not going to waste time, her shotgun's already coming up to face me.

I move, my hand knocking the barrel aside and move forward, twisting her arm back, kicking her knee up and throwing her off balance. I twist her around, one arm locked around her neck, crushing her throat, while the other is over her gun-arm.

Manipulating her body so that's she pointing at the closest Eclipse, I push my finger down over hers and fire off a round that tears straight through him and splatters the contents of his chest behind him.

The Asari is struggling in my grip, trying to break free as I reach forward and yank the stock back, letting the heat sink cycle as I swing us around to shoot through another enemy. She nearly breaks free, so I knee her in the spine, my hands around her head and push while pulling. Her neck snaps loudly and she falls to the ground, dead.

As she falls, I grab her pistol and dive forward, rolling toward the last Eclipse. She's just getting to her feet, a snarl on her lips.

I come out of my roll, my right arm drawn back, omni-tool glowing as a blade is flash-forged by the mini-fabricator, the white-hot blade hissing through the air.

She can't move fast enough. My blade completely bypasses her gun and tears through her armor and flesh, the tip poking out of her back as the smell of burnt flesh begins to permeate the air. The blade disappears and the corpse falls to the ground.

I know this is not over as the other four pour out of the back, weapons ready. My Overload greets the first, popping his shield and making him scream as thousands of volts fry his nerves. Two shots end his misery.

The other three take cover in the hallway, now wary of the guy who killed most of their comrades. I flip a table over and dive to another as rounds rip through the plastic.

The sights line up with the head of an Eclipse that's peaking out of the doorway. My pistol barks and kicks, and he falls back in a spray of blood.

I fall into my crouching biotic stance and launch a Pull through the doorway. The attack catches one and brings her into the air, the other flares his own biotics and blows mine away.

I pull the trigger three times to take the floating woman out of action. This causes my biotics to end how the normally do: in an explosion.

The blast knocks the last one forward, and he stumbles right into the path of my bullets.

Carlya comes out as the last one falls. "That was amazing, but we need to get out of here before more of them show up!" She doesn't remember that there is one more outside, but I do.

"Get down!" I yell, throwing myself forward and tackling her to the ground as thunder booms and one of the windows shatters. I can feel heavy pressure on my left shoulder, leaving me with a limp arm and tingly feeling.

We crouch under the window, the glass crunching underneath our feet. I poke my pistol over the edge and fire randomly at where I think the shots may have come from to buy us some time. "We need to get this last guy," I say unnecessarily. Carlya nods, a shotgun cradled in her arms.

Peaking over the lip, I can see the man looking over the hood of a car, sniper rifle in his shoulder and sights over his eye. I duck back down, right in time as his gun fires and the bullet whistles over my head. "He's behind a car across the street with a sniper."

Carlya bites her lips in worry. "My biotics can't reach that far and this shotgun won't either."

My biotics probably could, but they'd detonate the car, and as much as I like explosions, I'd rather not have the people I buy food from pissed at me because I blew up their store front. "Here, trade me." I switch my pistol with her shotgun and crawl away from her. "Cover me, just spray bullets his direction and keep him out of sight. I have an idea."

She nods and pokes her gun up, firing rapidly in his direction. I signal her once he's in cover, and she stands to rain fire on his position.

Biotic energy gathers around my body, thrumming around me in anticipation of being released.

Carlya curses as her gun overheats. The leader, seeing his chance, starts to rise, trying to sight onto the Asari, but that was just what I'm waiting for.

I've been trying to emulate the biotic Charge I know Tela is capable of, but so far it hasn't worked. Turns out, trying to use it without a live target the first time doesn't work, and it's considered impossible by humans until biotic implants get more powerful.

But, here and now, I have a live target.

I imagine pulling my biotics back like rubber band, and time slows to an absolute crawl. My vision is firmly locked onto the leader, and I let the rubber band go.

The rush is incredible. It's like riding lightning! I see blue flow in front of me, leaving only the leader in the tunnel vision I'm experiencing.

I barely even notice as I phase through the wall and then the car. The impact from when I hit him releases a blast of energy that throws him onto his back but also kicks me into the car.

I recover first, my shotgun kicks, the cluster of Mass-Accelerated pellets popping his shield. The next round has nothing to go through, and pulps his head into red paste, the crack echoing with a dead finality.

"Carlya!" I call back. She peaks over the edge, pistol at the ready. "He's dead!"

She hops through the window and jogs up, clipping her gun onto a magnetic holster on her belt. "Good. This won't end until I'm off the grid, but you've bought me some time."

A purple sky-car settles into the street with a hum, the doors opening up to show Tela, who's looking at me with an amused smirk. "I leave you alone for three days, and you get into a gunfight. What next?"

Carlya moves up to Tela with a purpose. "Spectre Vasir, I need your help. I know you can take me into protective custody, and I ask that you do so to prevent my death, so that I may testify against the unlawful actions of the Eclipse Mercenary Company."

Tela scans the Asari with a weathered eye, and then nods and sighs. "Alright. Get in the car, you two. I'll take us home so I can get your statement. I'll have to contact the local police force and explain this, so I'll need a statement from you too, Sol."

We hop in the car and fly off. As we go, I send off a message to the simple VI in the other car to follow us home.

A smooth hand on my shoulder draws my attention to a grateful Carlya. "Thank you for keeping me safe, Sol. I have to say, you were really good out there. I know you don't have a job, but have you thought of anything? Maybe joining C-Sec?"

It's something I've thought over a lot, and the job that screams to me the most is one where I'll make money from killing bad guys. It'll help me build up my reputation, so that in two and a half years, when Shepard comes around, looking for a crew, I'll be right there to offer my services.

"I'm going to take up Bounty Hunting." I say, gaining looks from both of the Asari in the car with me. "Taking out bad people and getting paid for it sounds like my dream job. It'll be hard, but 'Soleneus, Bounty Hunter extraordinaire' will be worth it."

Carlya sits back, a thoughtful look on her face.

It gets hard to breath, and I'm suddenly panting like I've sprinted a full marathon. What the fuck is going on?

I can distantly hear Tela ask me a question, but the heat that engulfs my body is pushing my consciousness away, and I can't answer.

I hear the Asari call my name in worry before it all fades to black.

…

Well, isn't this familiar? Sitting up in my bed, I can see the sun is already a good way above the horizon, and since it was past noon the last time I was conscious, that must mean I was out of for a day at least.

The door slides open, allowing Tela into the room with a plate of food and glass of some type of liquid. "So the VI was right, you are awake. How are you feeling?" She asks, setting the food on the bedside table.

"Tingly and kind of nauseous. What happened?" I reply, downing the drink.

"The sniper had illegally modded ammo. Polonium rounds." Tela takes a seat at the foot of the bed and opens up her omni-tool. "You had radiation sickness. We pumped the radiation out of you and detoxed you, so you'll be perfectly in a couple hours."

Radiation? Great. Hopefully I won't grow a third arm or something. That would suck. "Where's Carlya?" I just remembered that she was involved yesterday.

Tela closes her omni-tool and smirks at me. "Your Asari friend is safely in protective custody on the Citadel, where she will testify against the Eclipse and hopefully push them out Council space. She wanted me to thank you for saving her life. I think she may have sent you a message."

Her omni-tool chimed, and she left to deal with it. "I need to take this, one second."

I open up my own, looking through my emails and finding a couple new ones, including a few offers on Fornax, an alert on my Galaxy of Fantasy subscription and one from [Anonymous Address]

_Sol-_

_Thank you for saving my life yesterday. If you hadn't been there, my former friends would have ended me. _

_I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye, and I hope you forgive me for that. Your Spectre friend was very insistent on getting me safe on the Citadel and I didn't have much time._

_Thank you again._

_-Carlya_

_P.S.: I think this may intrigue you._

_[/link] Soleneus [/link] Badass Weekly [/link]_

This is intriguing. I open up the link and am greeted by an article in _Badass Weekly_ with headline 'Unarmored Human Destroys Eclipse'. The video underneath was taken from the cameras in the restaurant, and I got to watch myself mow down those Eclipse. I have to admit, I do look badass. Especially the Charge. I looked like I disappeared in flash of blue and orange light, the cameras not being able to follow my movements, and that was where it ended.

It was followed by a testimonial from 'A Real Client'

_The Bounty Hunter Soleneus saved my life during this video, and I would trust him with my life again if it came down to it. Soleneus kept me uninjured and got me to safety before the Eclipse could kill me, and for that I will be forever grateful._

Seems like Carlya was trying to help me break into the bounty hunting business. That was nice of her.

The door opens, showing Tela standing in the doorway with a note in her hand. "Your serious about being a bounty hunter, aren't you? I found this list on the fridge: How to be A Badass Bounty Hunter, By Sol. Get recognizable, intimidating armor. Get a jetpack. Get a flamethrower. Get a rocket launcher. Kill a lot of bounties. Publicly kill bounties in bars."

I can feel the blush on my face. I'd meant to take that down before she got back. Too late, it seems.

"If this is really what you want to do, 'Soleneus'," The smirk on Tela's face makes my spine prickle in anxiety. "Then we have to kick your training up to the next notch. My notch."

Fuck me. I asked for this, knew it was a possibility, but I didn't think Tela would look so much like a shark circling wounded prey.

I am so dead.

…

**A/N: And now, you find out what Sol's career path includes! Yay for bounty hunting! You should get the reference in this chapter. I mean, who else is a bounty hunter with a rocket launcher, flame thrower and jetpack?**

**Sol's moving up, getting skilled. He's coming to be a badass, but he still has a way to go.**

**A couple more chapters, and we move out of the prologue. That's right, these chapters have all been the prologue! Big surprise, right?**

**Next chapter, something happens and Sol steps out into the big bold galaxy to start his new job.**

**Read, Review and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S. I don't know if it was FF or not, but the recent chapters have been getting barely any reviews. It's weird, especially after the huge reception of chapter 6.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	10. Stepping Out Into the Galaxy

The technology in this place is fascinating. It can be very difficult when dealing with creating programs or algorithms and really complicated things, but it's also surprisingly simple when it comes to modifying preexisting equipment.

With a few mods I ordered from a few 'reliable' sources, I increased the firing power of the Gorgon, decreased the cool-down time and it now shot electrically charged rounds that I modified myself to detonate when the target is afflicted by Overload.

With how much I've learned using the Gorgon, I decided to keep it. It was powerful, accurate, and reliable most of all. I used a program in my omni-tool to paint it dark purple and black and named it 'Medusa', because I'm a sentimental bastard like that.

I also ordered two pistols. A Karpov IX and a Harpy VII nicknamed by yours truly as 'Bagger' and 'Tagger' respectively. Bagger is modified with Tungsten rounds to punch through armor, along with a mod that increases firing power by sacrificing cool down time, along with an Incendiary mod to light people on fire. It is made to kill, no two ways about it.

Tagger is also modified, but with subduing targets in mind rather than outright murdering the shit out of them. It has an accuracy mod, along with a module that effectively turns the bullets into Tazer rounds that can tear through shields. The best part is the mod I made myself. If a target escapes me after being tagged by Tagger, the in-built sensors will keep track of him or her and lead me right to them, and I can take them down when they think they're safe.

I hadn't found I shotgun I really like, but I'll keep searching. If I can get my hands on a Claymore and modify it, I think that would be my best bet.

I also couldn't find the right sniper rifle. The Raptor was still in the prototyping stage at this point in time, so I bought an Equalizer VII and got down and dirty with that bad boy. I've learned over the time I've been spending with Tela that I am not a sniper. Long-range combat does not appeal to the killer in me. Sitting back, lining up a shot and then capping one enemy before moving on, waiting and lining up a shot is not my style. Fuck that, I am not nearly that goddamn patient.

So, I decided to go my own way. In the games I've played back before I got shot and even now, I've found great success as a Combat Sniper, as I like to call it. Instead of hanging back for long-range, a Combat Sniper is mid-range.

To that effect, I shaved down the barrel, removing a good amount of weight and range. I took the scope off entirely and replaced it with a simple red-dot sight. With the weight of the barrel and scope gone, I attached mod to increase the cool-down, which would allow me to fire more rounds than one or two before having cycle the heat sink, along with another mod that did the same, giving my rifle a lot more shots. It's now more like a carbine than a sniper rifle, and that's what I was aiming for. It's not as powerful as it used to be, but that was perfectly fine with me.

My little spending spree left me with very little cash left over. Thankfully, it was bolstered by the bounty I got off of the Eclipse leader, though it wasn't very much. I also got their armor and weapons after they were stripped of illegal modifications, so I sold those as well. The armor wasn't very useful, and the leader was the only one whose armor was some sort of protective, and it wasn't very strong either. I melted down the other armor into omni-gel and tried to shore up the protective properties, but I haven't been very successful. I'll just have to buy a better set at some point when I've got more cash.

That wasn't all I've been doing. Not even close.

Tela kicked my training up to eleven. I barely got any sleep these past three months. Every hour of every day was spent sparring with the Spectre, working out, practicing my biotics or shooting and dodging. Whatever free time I had is used to sleep or learning how to use the tech.

I also did research on bounty hunters, and well…I didn't like what I found. Bounty hunters are considered as mercenaries who would turn on other mercenaries for money, and weren't very well trusted, especially by the militaries of the galaxy. So, someone like Shepard (who I couldn't find out about on the extranet, to my chagrin) would rather shoot a bounty hunter than ask him to help.

So, shit. There goes that idea. But while I was pondering how to be badass while still being someone Shepard would grab for her team, I came up with an awesome idea.

I will have two identities. After all, who would connect Saul, mild-mannered but dangerous Private Investigator with Soleneus, ruthless Bounty Hunter?

Saul would operate in Council space, while Soleneus would operate in the Terminus systems, which would keep the identities apart from one another.

I still hadn't figured out what my last name would be. Going to let my mind fester on that for a bit…

I don't know what it is about this day, but it seems…final, like something is about to come to a very solid and official end.

I don't like it.

But I really don't have time to think.

Tela's standing a few feet away, in her fighting stance, wearing her typical attire of a sports-bra and a pair shorts.

I'm standing a few feet away from her in my fighting stance, which is a lot less graceful than hers and more along the lines of pugilism and karate than anything.

We're both tense, ready for action.

On some silent signal, we charge. Every attack that I block or turn away is turned around and made into another attack, and every move that I make is dodged with grace and flexibility.

Our arms become tangled, and it turns into a contest of strength. I'm trying to push her over and she's doing the same, our sweat mingling as we struggle to knock the other over.

One of her legs kicks out the back of my knee, and I tumble onto my back. There's triumph on her face, but she doesn't see my legs coming up. My feet are pressed against her stomach as my back hits the mat, and I push up as I roll, throwing her across the room with a surprised yell escaping from her lips.

She hits the ground and rolls to her knees, already facing me as I jump forward, one leg outstretched and aimed for her face.

Tela, using her hax-flexibility, net backwards, nearly pressing her back against the floor, avoiding me entirely.

I landed, and she was already there, her arms under my shoulders, knee pressed against my back. I find myself leaving the ground and hitting the mat in a submission hold.

Before she can even say anything, and I know she would, I reached up and wrapped my hands around the back of her neck and pulled her forward.

Tela goes over my head and looses her breath as I roll over on top of her, my knee pushing against her stomach. She bucks, throwing me to the left while she tries to sit up, but my right arm is around her shoulders. I pull her top half over my side, leaving her legs sticking up into the air, with her arms trapped together by our bodies, her face inches away from mine.

"I win." I say, breathlessly.

Tela struggles for a couple of seconds, and then goes limp and nod with a sigh. "Yeah, you win." She concedes.

"OH YEAH!" I threw my arms up in the touchdown pose. "Score! I finally beat you like I said I would! Whoo!"

Tela shakes her head with a small smile at my antics. "Only took you what, seven months?"

"Hey!" My finger is pointing straight at her face. "You're a Spectre, and I'm just a guy. Just a guy that beat you, finally, but still, regular (somewhat) human being. So bite me."

Her teeth would have snapped down on my finger had I not jerked away. "So, you're into biting huh? I never would have guessed."

Yeah, because the obvious bite mark on my neck came from an animal attack.

…that fits, now that I think about it.

"You don't know what I'm into, Tela." It comes out dryer than I expected or intended, but if she notices she doesn't show it.

"Come on, let's go watch the sunset." I follow her out onto the back porch, where the sun is sinking behind the hills, the last fingers of light poking me in the eyeballs.

As the sun goes down, the feeling of impending doom starts to intensify, but I can't figure out why.

Tela looks to me, her mouth opening to speak, when her omni-tool chimes. "I-I'm going to take this." She stumbles over her words uncharacteristically and hops up, nearly running around the house. I wonder what she wanted to say.

She comes back nearly twenty minutes later, when the sun is good and gone for the night. It may just be the moonlight, but Tela seems pale to me. "Goodnight," She mutters shortly, disappearing back into the house without another word.

I go in, take a shower and hop into bed, but Tela's attitude is rankling me something fierce. I've seen her get frustrated before, particularly when she taught me how to make a Biotic Barrier. But this shortness and anger is…alien. Foreign.

I'm nearly asleep now. It's pitch black in my room, and I can feel sleep start to creep up on me when the door opens.

There's only one other person in this house. I try to ask her what's wrong, but her finger keeps my lips closed.

She doesn't say anything. She pushes me back onto the bed, her lips caging mine, and all I can do is feel.

…

The morning sun tries to wake me up gently, stroking me face and warming my body, but quickly decides that it isn't worth it and pokes me right in the eyeballs.

There's no one else in my room this morning, but there's still evidence of our late night activities. I can still taste her in my mouth, but there's no here.

The house seems colder than I remember, and I after I shower, I can only find traveling clothes. All the rest of my stuff is gone.

So is Tela's. Besides my rumpled bed and the water on the ground in the bathroom, there's no evidence that anyone has lived her. The fridge is empty, so are the cupboards and there's no furniture.

Outside, the sky car has my bags, two duffles, one filled with my weapons and armor, and the other with a change of clothes and a note.

_Zakera Ward, 9312, 9000 Block, Citadel._

_I'm sorry._

_Don't try to find me._

And that's it. The door to the house locks behind me.

I don't know what's going on, but the answers to my questions are at the Citadel.

…

The sky-car hums as I land it outside of one of the space ports on Bekenstein. I grab my bags, slinging one over my shoulder and carrying the other.

As I approach the station, a blue Salarian with a datapad and an officious air meets me. "Are you Saul?" He asks, not even bothering to be polite.

At my nod, he taps his datapad and sends something to my omni-tool. "You have thirty minutes until your shuttle is impounded and you will be fined. Your fees have already been paid. Good day."

I barely notice as he leaves. Shuttle? Since when did I have a shuttle? And more to the point, who paid the fees for me?

Following the directions on my omni-tool, I find my shuttle in waiting for me, engines running and everything. It's not very big, only about ten meters long, with a few small cannons for defense.

The inside is small, but roomy and comfortable. There's a bed, a desk, a bathroom and a kitchen, separated from the cockpit by a door.

I shuck my bags on the bed and sit down in the pilot's chair, the holo-panels opening up and ready to be directed.

My fingers deftly skip across the controls, and I can feel the ship rise into the air. With another quick series of taps, I'm moving up, shooting through the atmosphere and into the blackness of space.

I set the VI to steer me to the Citadel and start scanning the readouts and systems. The ship is small, but with a powerful engine and a nice array of weapons that would be frankly useless against bigger ships, but good to keep me somewhat safe.

All the systems are green, and there's nothing to do, so I open Galaxy of Fantasy on the desk and start playing my Krogan Black Paladin to get my mind off things.

…

I dock at the Citadel, after being contacted by control, the Turian on the other end informing me that my reserved dock was waiting for me.

Once again, someone has gotten me something that I knew I would eventually need.

I grab my bags, attach Tagger to a magnetic holster on left hip, and set off for the 9000 blocks in a sky car.

It doesn't take me long to get to the blocks, and I walk the distance, scanning the addresses for 9312, finally finding it squeezed between an antique shop and a Japanese-Asari restaurant.

The door is small and simple, but the words on it make me pause, and I finally know just who it is that's arranged all of this for me.

_**Saul Dewitt**_

_**Private Investigator**_

_**And Co.**_

Tela.

The door slides open, and I see a desk with a chair, and a set of stairs leading up. I set the duffle bags down and slump down in the chair. The computer starts, and the screen pops up without my activation.

_Welcome to the Citadel, Mr. Dewitt. I hope you become a productive member of the Citadel Private Security Forces._

_-Councilor Tevos._

Citadel Private Security Forces? I guess that means I'm not a part of C-Sec, just an affiliate. That'll be good to draw in clients.

Soft steps sound from behind me, and I spin around in my chair, Tagger primed and ready, pointed straight between the eyes of…

"Dr. Nelon?"

The red Salarian smiles slightly. "Good to see you again, Saul."

What the hell? How did he get here?

"Why are you here, doc? How did you get here?" I ask.

He shrugs lightly. "Spectre Vasir sent me a message, asking me to come to the Citadel and join you in your Private Investigations. Said something about 'needing a doctor'. Nasurn boring, came here to alleviate boredom. Always wanted to be a detective. Noire films, very interesting, fun to do." He taps his chin in thought. "Also enjoyed Sherlock Holmes. 'Elementary, my dear Watson!', though not a real quote, still fun. Looking forward to working with you."

My pistol is holstered as I step up and shake his hand firmly. "I don't really know what's going on, doc, but you're welcome here. Thanks for sending me those programs. I've gotten quite proficient with them."

Nelon nods in respect. "Good. Was hoping for that outcome."

The door slides open, drawing our attention to woman stepping through. "E-excuse me, Mr. Dewitt?" She has short blonde hair and is wearing a purple dress that, while fitting for the time, is still kind of old looking. It hugs the young lady quite nicely, though. "I'm Mary, Mary Hudson. I own the restaurant next door, Cultured Cuisines…and I was wondering if you would take my case?"

The good doctor and I trade glances. "I guess we got to start somewhere." I say, and Nelon nods.

"How can we help you, Mary, was it? What seems to be the problem?" I gesture for her to take a seat in front of my desk as I settle across from her, Nelon standing by the side.

"W-well, I order a lot of fish for my dishes. Asari and Japanese food use a lot of fish, you see, and…anyway, my orders keep disappearing." She wrings her hands nervously, the poor girl looking like she'll burst into tears at any minute. "I keep finding empty tanks that my fish were supposed to come in, but no fish! If I can't get any fish, I can't serve my customers, and if I can't serve my customers, I'll go out of business!" Mary buries her face in her hands and sobs.

I step around my desk and lay a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry, Mary. We'll take the case."

She looks up at me, her big brown eyes glittering with tears. "You will? Thank you so much!"

Mary jumps up and crushes me into a hug. Christ, this girl is a lot stronger than she looks!

Nelon is amused, I can see it in his eyes.

While this isn't what I imagined I would be doing while I wait for Shepard, it's still something to do. I'll still be helping people like I want to, and eventually, bigger cases will show up. I still have to find Tela and see what's going on with her, but for now, it's nice and simple.

And sometimes, that's all you need.

…

**A/N: Bam! Who saw that coming, huh? Twist.**

**To dispel some questions, Sol will still be a Bounty Hunter. He'll be both a PI and a BH, but keep the identities separate.**

**Thanks to all who've reviewed, you guys rock.**

**Read, Review, and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S.: I'm aware of the references I've made, so there's no need to point them out unless they're amusing.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	11. The Strangled Man and The Dog

The ramen here was actually pretty good, if a little bland. It was cheap, too.

Nelon wasn't here with me. He was at a nearby homeless shelter that was geared almost entirely to Quarians, helping make the nutrient paste actually taste like something. A good tasting meal goes a long way, it seems.

PI business isn't all that bad, and I seem to have an eye for detail when it comes to these cases. I haven't been shot at yet, so that's something.

The first case Nelon and I ever did, for Mary Hudson, was easily solvable. We ordered another tank of fish and waited for it to arrive. When it did, we found out that the people stealing the fish were orphans that had been left on the Citadel for some reason or another.

After we told Mary, she offered to adopt the little kids and take care of them, but they refused. Turns out, they had a pretty good thing going for themselves. Most criminals wouldn't even pay attention to rats underneath their feet, so they heard quite a lot of information that would be of interest to us.

Instead, we made a deal. We would give them a safe place to eat and sleep, and in return, they would take any interesting tid-bits they heard and bring them to our attention.

Three times in the last two weeks they brought something to us. We took it to C-Sec, they arrested the crooks and paid us, and we got the credit for it. Of course, the kids spilt the fee. Nelon and I are not bastards.

Mary would come over every day or so and bring us meals from her restaurant. She is a very good cook. Excellent sushi.

While we'd done some good, solved some cases and made some people happy but…I was fucking bored. I haven't been shot at, been in a fight or punched a random person in two weeks!

My omni-tool chimed, drawing me out of my brooding funk. I opened up the channel to respond. "Saul Dewitt, PI. How can I help you?"

The flanging voice on the other end let me know it was a Turian. "Mr. Dewitt, this is Garrus Vakarian of Citadel Security. Am I bothering you right now?"

I tilt the bowl back and slurp down the rest of broth. "Nope. What do you need?"

"It's not something I can talk about over an open channel. Can you meet me near the Flux?" Garrus asks.

"Sure. Can I bring my partner?"

I can hear the shrug in his voice. "I wouldn't mind that. Be at the Flux in twenty minutes. Good bye."

Not wasting any time on bull shit, nice. I send a message to the good doctor as I call for a taxi, telling him where to go and who to expect.

…

The crappy future music is pounding, even outside of the Flux. Nelon and I enter through the door in time to watch a Salarian get thrown down the steps.

We step over him and pass by the bouncer, getting into the club itself. There's a dance floor, a couple of tables and booths and a bar, a long room with a large gambling section upstairs.

I recognize the Turian leaning on the bar. It's hard not to. He's wearing the dark blue and black armor of C-Sec, with the blue glowing visor over his right eye and everything. He waves us over. "You guys want a drink?"

Nelon ordered a glass of root beer while I asked for a pint of Guinness. When we had our drinks, Garrus bade us to follow him to a secluded booth.

"Alright Vakarian, what did you call me for?" I ask, sipping my black beer.

He waved a hand nonchalantly and sipped a dark purple drink. "Just call me Garrus, alright? You say 'Vakarian' and I look for my father."

I shrug. "Okay, Garrus."

He sighs and cradles his drink as Nelon stirs his root beer with a plastic stick. "Listen, I was investigating a murder, a human named Steve Downes. He was found dead in his apartment a couple of days ago with no obvious cause or suspects. For all intents, Downes was a nobody, just a regular guy who had no friends or enemies. Why would someone kill him?"

The Salarian next to me pulls the stick out of his root beer and licks it. "Read report. Cause of death ruled as suffocation, but no wire marks or hand prints. Would like to get a closer look at the body. More thorough than C-Sec."

I stop them there. "This all well and good, but why us? We're just a couple of PI's."

Garrus knocks his drink back and shudders slightly. "Your tips in the past couple of weeks have lead to the capture of three killers and gang members. I read the reports, you guys are pretty good at ferreting out the truth. The Executor closed the case a day ago, ruled it as a suicide and brushed it aside. But I think that there's something more to this. Steve Downes was a no one, but someone went through the trouble to make it look like he offed himself. I want your help in finishing this case."

I may have under-stated what we did with kids' information. They would get us the tips, we would follow through with them, do a little legwork, read the C-Sec reports due to a crappy security system I could crack in my sleep, and find out the truth. This is could be our chance. If we're successful, and the case is big enough, we could really make a name for ourselves and draw in some high-profile clients.

"Alright, I'm in." As a show of agreement, I hold up my Guinness, Nelon holds up his half-empty root beer and Garrus holds up his second drink, and we tap the glasses together and chug down the drinks.

"Alright, let's go look at a dead guy."

…

As Nelon shines a light into the eyes of the corpse of Steven Downes, the light brown irises stand out boldly against the blood-red sclera, and the blood-red sclera very nearly pops out of the pale grey skin that surrounded it.

Steven Downes was an average man no matter how you slice it. Average height, average weight, even average looks. Asking someone to pick this man out of a crowd would be like asking someone if they've ever seen a Turian laugh.

The answer would be 'no'.

The fact that this man looks like no one is disconcerting to me. Every one has their quirks and weirdness, but this man had exactly none, and that is very strange. He was basically a living, breathing robot without the charge-up port. Maybe. I wasn't exactly keen on finding out what was beneath the sheet.

"Hmm." Nelon hums to himself when he's thinking, and he's been humming quite a bit. "No signs of forced strangulation, though the burst blood-vessels in the eyes suggest vacuum exposure. No signs of struggle or bruising and no toxins in the blood."

"Yeah," Garrus chipped in, "The house wasn't broken into and nothing was missing, not even a credit chit. The system reported that the fire suppression systems were activated by his omni-tool, which was why it's been ruled as a suicide."

Nelon tilted the head to the left and exposed the neck. He leaned in, almost to the point that he was pressing his eyeballs against the corpses' neck. "To fingerprints on the jugular. Someone checked to make sure he was dead."

That is news. "It doesn't rule out a suicide, there might've been a double. But this is interesting. We should go to the victim's house next. We might find something some thing we overlooked before. It's only a short ride away, come on."

We must make quite the sight. A tall Turian in C-Sec blues, a forty-something human in a armored black leather jacket, and a Salarian in a white trench coat with the a red cross on the back and the breast.

Funny thing about Nelon: He's really fucking thin, even for a Salarian. While we were looking through clothes this one day, he couldn't find anything in his size in the men's section. As we were leaving the store, he spotted a white trench coat on the rack, saw that it would fit him perfectly, and snatched that up. After we bought it with a few wary looks from the cashier, Nelon found out that the coat he bought was a women's small. I didn't his face could get any redder, but he proved me wrong that day.

As for me being forty-something…that was a lie. I'm twenty, and I look like it. And there are very few people who take young guys seriously in the law-man business.

To that effect, I let some stubble grow out on my chin. Not a beard, just a five o'clock shadow that gives me a tired, aged look. I added a little bit of grey dye to the edges of my light brown hair and bam, I looked like a weathered and experienced man who's seen some shit. And therefore, I was taken seriously.

Garrus wore his C-Sec blues, I've said so before. Nelon wore his scrubs underneath his white trench with a shield hidden on his back incase we got into something, along with an SMG to get us out of trouble if it came to that.

I like what I wear these days. After trying various methods to get my armor to be more protective, I said fuck it and disassembled it. The boots I now wear; I painted them grey with black stripes, and the armor plating goes up to my knees. I didn't wear the thigh-plating that much, just stored it for heavier combat later. The chest piece was broken up into sections. Most of the front and back was made into a ballistic vest to be worn over a shirt; the rest was attached to my jacket. The shoulder plates, some of the back plates along with the arm guard and gauntlets cover my shoulders, back and arms, though I didn't wear the gauntlets often as a personal preference. I keep Tagger visible on my hip but keep Bagger hidden on my back, with a Biotic Barrier up for protection.

All in all, although we make a strange group, there's no denying we look badass as hell.

Steven Downes' apartment is just average as the guy, save for the holo-tape in front of the door. We ignore it and enter the building and find his place on the ground floor, with more holo-tape in front covering it. He had a kitchen, a living room with a bathroom and a bedroom, which is more than most people doing the 'average salary' thing. Hell, me and Nelon shared a flat above the office that only a little bigger than this and that was because Tela paid the lease before disappearing out of my life like a damn ghost.

Garrus points out a spot in front of the couch. "This where we found him. No one else except the CSI team has been in here, excluding the mystery second."

As I search in my pockets, I ask Garrus a question. "Do you have the genetic profiles of your team and our vic?"

He seems to be startled, if the twitching of his mandibles is anything to go by. "Of course. Why do you ask?"

I finally find what I've been looking for as I ask another question. "Can you send them to me?"

He's wary of me, but he sends the data packet along. "Alright, I've sent them. Again, why do you need them?"

I pull out a pair of sunglasses and slide them over my eyes, tapping the bridge to activate the HUD function. "Nelon and I cobbled together a couple pairs of these from some repurposed helmets and some medical equipment. They can act as scanners that can find and analyze DNA and RNA."

Garrus is perplexed, and he makes it known. "How does that help us? Besides the CSI team, the mystery second only touched Downes. We scanned the building before and didn't find anything."

"Did you search for footprints?"

"Yeah, of course. We didn't find anything." The irritation shows by his mandibles opening and closing a few centimeters rapidly.

Nelon takes over from here as I calibrate my glasses with the genetic profiles Garrus sent me. "When humanoids pull on shoes, they always grab the bottom around the middle to push them on, or brush against the sides to adjust them. This leaves traces around the footprint they leave. The depth of the sheddings and the amount around the print can tell us many things."

I'm just going to scan while the doc explains it to Garrus. The footprints of myself, Nelon, Garrus and the other team show up as a neutral blue. I adjust the search parameters to find foreign DNA, and a light dusting of red highlights a path around where the body fell. "Found something!" I call to the two aliens. "From the size and the shape, I'd say human male, late twenties or early thirties. The depth tells me he weighs around 160 lbs and has seen combat. Length of the stride suggests a height of 5'11". Pressure analysis tells me he walks on the pads of his feet, so we're looking for a sneaky bastard who's fought at some point."

Garrus' jaw drops, and Nelon has a smug look on his face. "I want one." The Turian says plainly.

Looking up, I can see the red footprints leaving out the door. "I can see more footprints from out mysterious man going out the door. Let's follow and see what we can find."

We follow the only trail I can see, the doctor pulling on his own pair. My HUD-glasses are sportier and cover the whole eye and the socket, while the doctor's are round and still stylish. He sticks the legs to the side of his head with a pair of adhesive patches, lacking ears.

"Here," He points at a divergent set of steps leading up the stairs. "The path separates. I will look up top. You follow the other."

We exchange nods and split with Garrus following me. "So, how did you meet the doctor?" He tries making easy conversation.

"He was my doctor after I got on the wrong side of a Batarian slaver. The slaver threw me through a crate after bashing me in the head with the butt of his shotgun. The doctor even came to rescue me after I was kidnapped by the slavers' leader." I explain to him, following the steps as we talk. "Here. The administrator's terminal. It's a holo-pad, so I can get any readings off of that. But, I can hack the system and find out the system commands on that day."

Garrus is looking over my shoulder, his omni-tool out and glowing. "It's twice encrypted; it'd be a lot faster if double team it."

"Alright."

We dive right in, him taking one chunk and me the other. In no time, the systems' cracked and we're in.

My fingers dance over the holo-pad, finding the system commands on the day Steven Downes was killed. "Look here. It says on Monday, at seven twenty, the fire suppression system was activated in Steven Downes apartment, and there's no reason listed as why. It seems to have been hacked to accept the command without a valid reason or password."

Garrus taps me on the shoulder and holds out his omni-tool, a screen hovering above the gauntlet. "Look at this. This is a recording from the camera above the terminal. Watch."

He fast forwards. A couple of people zip by and an Asari stops to type at the terminal. When 7:20 rolls around, no one appears next to the terminal, but the timestamp jumps forward three minutes for no reason. "Did you see that?" Garrus asks.

"I noticed. The time jumps forward. This 'mystery second' wasn't the second. He was the killer. This is a murder." I declare.

My omni-tool chimes. "Dewitt."

Nelon's voice comes over the com. "Saul. Traced footprints up the stairs to apartment 21b. Broke in and found recent signs of life, but furniture, clothes or anything needed to live. Are still at the terminal?"

"Yup. Checking it out…now." The screen flickers as a list of names rises to the front. "21b…was rented by a Charles Lee. He turned in his last payment four hours ago."

There was another set of footsteps leading out of the apartment building. Those were the freshest and most recent. "Nelon, get down here. Charles Lee might still be on the station."

Garrus and I run through the hallway and meet Nelon at the front door. We find the tracks glaring a bright red from the floor and follow after them at a swift jog.

As we jogged, I noticed something. Lee, whoever he was, avoided the parts of the streets with the most traffic. Nelon noticed this as well. "Whoever Lee is, he is leaving a trail for us. Better be prepared to fight."

Although my sunglasses will do fuck-all to protect my face, at least I'll look stylish if I get shot.

"This man is definitely leaving a trail. We've gone seven blocks. Most people would have used a sky-car before now." Garrus notes, breathing only a little heavily.

"I recognize this place," I speak out loud, "We're in the 9000 blocks. Our office is only a block away."

The tracks lead past the office and into Cultured Cuisine. Mary looks very surprised to see me, Nelon and an armored Turian burst into the eatery with weapons drawn. "Mr. Dewitt! What is going on?"

"Mary, was there a man in here a couple minutes ago named Charles?" I ask, lowering my gun and deactivating my HUD-glasses.

"Charlie? Yeah, he left about an hour ago, said he had a family problem back home and wouldn't be back." Mary wipes one of her eyes. "That poor man. So sad that his cousin died."

"Can you show us where he was sitting on the security cameras?" Garrus asks impatiently.

Mary is startled by the force in his voice and silently opens a nearby terminal. She taps a few keys and shows us a video of Chinese man with black hair eating some food at the third table to our left. After Mary comes by and pours him a drink, he looks directly into the camera and traces something onto the table with his fingers.

I jog over to the table, my glasses turning back on.

Written in bold red against the white table top, the words jump out at me from the HUD in front of my eyes.

_The Guardian of Tartarus is watching you, Mr. Dewitt._

Cerberus.

…

**A/N: And there we go. This is my first chapter trying out the whole 'mystery and suspense' thing. How did I do? Do you have any suggestions?**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing my work. I have the next few chapters already outlined, so expect to see those in the next week or so. I promise, you'll like what you read. Teaser:**

_The café looks over the Presidium, giving a very nice, open view of the river and the inhabitants below us. The hum of the sky-cars is negligible at this distance, so there is some measure of piece._

_The cloud of fragrant smoke that escapes my mouth drifts up and disperses into a little cloud the quickly vanishes in the breeze. These smart, healthy cigarettes are very smooth and have a very clean, fresh taste. It's not as if I smoke all the time, just once in awhile when I have some time to think. After what happened a month ago, cases have slowed down a bit. Nelon can handle whatever comes up and he insisted on my taking a break for lunch. He's such a workaholic._

"_Hey, do you have one to spare?" The voice is soft and husky, but strong and noticeably feminine._

_My hand slips into my pockets and retrieves the pack, offering it to the woman next to me. Her lips are red like rubies and soft as silk as they clasp the butt in her mouth. The flame that jumps from my lighter throws her face into sharp relief. It's heart-shaped and smooth, with pale, nearly porcelain skin. Her hair is a very dark, rich brown that seems to be almost black, and her eyes are like sapphires that stare into my soul._

_Her dress is stylish but not revealing, bucking the current trend of showing at least a little cleavage, but it's snug and looks very good on her. The bird choker around her throat must be an antique; I've never seen anything like it in this time._

"_What would you say if I told you 'I want to hire you for a job'?" She asks, the curls of smoke escaping her lips framing her face and giving it an almost ethereal glow._

"_I'd ask, 'What sort of job'?" I reply, taking another drag._

"_The job where you save the life of an innocent and gain something very valuable in return." She says, her face only barely shifting._

"_Well, then I'd say, 'why me?'"_

_Her gaze narrows on me, and I feel a tingle creeping up my spine. "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world, mister…?"_

"_Dewitt. Saul Dewitt." I turn and push my hand out, my fingers slightly curled._

_She smiles, if only slightly, and slides her hand into mine. "Mr. Dewitt. I'm looking for a girl. A very important girl. And I need your help to find her. The last I heard, she was on Omega." Her grip is firm, but her hands are soft but calloused. The calloused hand of a lady familiar with a gun._

_Omega. Looks like it's time to pay the Queen of Omega a visit. "You can call me Saul."_

"_You can call me Elizabeth."_

…

**Bam.**

**Read, Review and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S: Don't be surprised to the see that section lifted and pasted on the chapter it takes place in.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	12. In Which I Find Something Awesome

Steam is wafting around my legs as I roll to a stop. I look up, seeing Nelon standing right above me with his omni-tool out. "How'd I do, doc?"

"You've shredded 27% of the muscles in your legs, fractured both of your legs and you have a splinter of metal stuck in your right big toe." He listed off, pulling said splinter out and discarding it. "You'll recover in three hours."

Mary comes into the back room just as the good doctor is setting my legs. "Mr. Dewitt, you have-oh my god!"

The cracks as my bones are snapped back into place prove to be too much for her, and she falls back in a dead faint.

"Ah, doc…Mary's fainted again." I point out.

Nelon sighs and, without looking, shoots a very weak Cryo blast that amounts to an ice cube up Mary's dress.

The young woman leaps up with a shriek of surprise, batting frantically at her purple dress. After about thirty seconds of jumping and smacking herself, a small ice cube falls out of her dress and hits the floor.

Mary shoots Nelon an absolutely venomous glare that could poison every water supply within a mile. "There's a client outside waiting for you, Mr. Dewitt. A woman named Karlie Johnson, saying something about her son."

I hum. "Alright, can you tell her we'll be out in a minute?" Mary nods and leaves, shooting Nelon one last angry look before she goes.

"Doctor, my swivel chair!"

…

My chair skids to a halt behind my desk. Across from me is a woman who looks to be in her sixties, maybe, her eyes are red from crying.

"Good afternoon, ma'am, I'm Saul Dewitt, Private Investigator, and this is my partner, Doctor Nelon. What can I do for you today?"

She sniffles and wipes her eyes, lifting her head to face us fully. "Mr. Dewitt, I need your help. My son, Jeffery…he's been so cold to me recently! He always comes home late, he blows me off, and I know his grades are failing at school!"

The doctor and I exchange bereaved looks. "While I feel sorry for you ma'am, what do you need us for?" It's sad and all, but I'm not emotionally equipped to deal with women who won't stop crying.

"I want you to follow my son," She looks up at us with firm determination in her eyes. "C-Sec won't do it, so I need you to follow my son and find out where he's going after school, please. I can pay; I just want to find out what's wrong with him."

Sighing, I roll my head back and try to adjust my legs. On one hand, it's a job, and it pays, which is good, because money is good.

On the other hand, this may very well be a very trivial matter like the kid having a girlfriend or something, which is not that big of a deal, unless this woman is one of those controlling types who believes that their kids should live with them until they die. Probably with a racing car bed.

Eventually, my need for sweet green wins out over my thirst for action and adventure. Plus, my broken legs. "Alright, Mrs. Johnson, we'll take the case."

"You will?" Her face lights up like a Christmas tree, and I get struck by the realization that she's happy that I agreed to stalk her son.

"Of course. What's your kid's name? Do you have a picture that we could use to identify him?" Nelon asks. I barely hear the restrained boredom in his voice. He's not too thrilled about this, and I don't really blame him.

She perks up at the word 'picture'. "Oh. Yes, of course. Here you go!"

We open our omni-tools and open the data packet. The first picture to pop up is of a chubby brown-haired baby playing in the bath with an older kid dumping water on his head. The next is the same two kids, this time older. The chubby baby is now a toddler, with sticky hair and messy grin on his face from the chocolate cake that the older brother is shoving in his face.

Flicking through the whole album, I'm coming to the realization that this lady sent us a bunch of baby pictures. The entire thing is full of the two kids, and none of the pictures are recent at all, so I delete the thing.

"Oh, Charlie and Shane were such cute kids…" The old lady is talking to herself, crying silently while staring at pictures on her omni-tool.

Alright, fuck this. I'm going to deal with this lady anymore. I take a picture of her face with the camera app of my omni-tool and upload it to the C-Sec database. They really do have crappy security. I could bust through their security algorithms in my sleep, and that's saying something.

I add her name to the picture and start the search, watching the screen flick through faces for about three seconds before it finds Karlie Johnson, age 63, height 5'3", weight-I don't care about that, skip. Two kids, Charlie and Shane Johnson. Charlie is sixteen and goes to Larathos Institution on the Kithoi Ward, while Shane had joined the Alliance about three months ago when he turned eighteen.

The information had a picture, thankfully, and I finally find out what this kid looks like out of diapers. He's got short brown hair and dark brown eyes and a couple of freckles dotting his nose and cheeks and is otherwise completely unremarkable, if not for the scars that mar the left side of his face. They're not huge or really all that scary or anything, but the four jagged lines on the side of his head do stand out.

I poke the doctor in his side to get his attention, and the red-skinned Salarian flicks through the information. "Good idea," he whispers, watching the still-talking woman mutter to herself. "No relevant data from this female. School ends for the day in three hours. We should remove her from the premises soon, or I will lose my damn mind, Saul! She's freaking crazy!" He's growling by the end, baring his sharp teeth in an angry grimace.

Weird. He usually talks in a stilted manner that conveys the point he's trying to make, but this is odd…wait, no it's not, not if he's been drinking ice water.

That's an odd thing about Nelon. Ice water slows him down a bit so that he speaks regularly, acting like a relaxant for him. He's also more open about his feelings and uses a lot fewer scientific terms. Soda, on the other hand, makes him very giggly and hilarious. I don't know if it's a Salarian thing or not, as Nelon's my only Salarian friend.

"Mrs. Johnson!" I speak up, cutting into the older woman's rambling. "Thank you for the information you have provided us. My partner and I need to make plans and some other things, so…you should leave." Delicate, I am not.

She's surprised. "You-you don't need any more information?" I can tell she's fishing for another reason to stay longer, but I'm past the point of caring with this woman.

"Nope, we have all we need. Good day, and we'll let you know what we've found within a couple of days." It may have been somewhat cold on my part, and I really don't care.

"Oh…okay." The older lady slowly gets up from her seat and slowly walks to the door, then slowly walks through it, loitering about in the doorway before finally leaving.

As soon as the door closes, I let out a loud sigh. Nelon knows exactly how I'm feeling. We've got three hours, so I open up my terminal and map out a route to the Larathos Institution, but that only takes about two minutes.

The doc goes off to do his own thing, so I'm bored with no one to talk to. I open up Galaxy of Fantasy and log onto my Krogan Black Paladin. The Black Paladin is a class that uses curses to drain health from enemies and heal itself, while also dealing heavy damage with large weapon and wearing heavy plate armor. It's level 345, and it's quite the accomplishment that I've gotten it that far in most of a year.

As I finish off the last boss in the instance I'm doing with one of my online buddies named John Smith, my omni-tool chimes, and the light on the alarm is blue. There's only one person with that alarm on my omni-tool, so I really need to take this. I say good-bye to my friend and start for the workshop. It'll be empty, with Nelon out doing his thing, so I'll have some privacy.

I slide my ass in my swivel chair into the room and tap my tool and open up a screen. "Hello?"

The familiar blue face with white paint marking her cheeks, lips and forehead, along with the purple scale-like features on the crests of Tevos Belsari fills my screen. "Saul!" I can hear the relief in her voice. "It's so good to hear you again…" She blinks in confusion, her pale blue eyes roving my face. "…how old did you say you were?"

It takes me a minute, but I realize that she's referring to the stubble and the grey in my hair. "Oh. I just made myself look older," I sheepishly admit, scratching at the stubble on my face. "A lot of people don't take a fresh-faced PI very seriously, so I made myself look more grizzled."

"Oh." She blinks, as if it never occurred to her that people aren't really willing to believe that a handsome young man like my fine self could possibly be a good semi-cop. "You'll get rid of that when you meet me, right? I don't want to mess with your thing, but I want to meet Saul, not a grizzled private investigator."

I chuckle. I know what she means. I'd rather not spend some intimate time with someone I knew looking like someone else entirely. It'd be disconcerting. "It's easy to get the dye out of my hair and the stubble will grow back in a couple of hours, so no worries there. You said you want to meet with me?"

Tevos nods, smiling slightly. "Yes. It's been a long time, and I can barely get any time off. My trainee will take over tomorrow, so I want to take the time and be with you." She taps a few buttons, and a packet shows up on my omni-tool with an address and a time. "Ask for Tenya, she's the manager, and very discreet."

Her smile is soft and her eyes are warm. "I can't wait to meet you tonight. I'll see you then, okay?"

I can feel the smile on my face, and there's a warm beat in my chest. "I'll be there, Tevos. Good bye for now."

The screen closes, and I check the time. I've got about an hour until we need to leave, and my Krogan Black Paladin is calling to me.

…

Stake out if really damn boring. Nelon and I arrived early and have been watching the Institution for thirty minutes, with no sign of Charlie Johnson so far.

Larathos Institution doesn't seem to be a very fun place to go to school, what with the grey uniforms and rigid teachers. There are mostly humans here, a few Salarians and Turians and maybe thirty Asari. There are no Krogans, Batarians, Quarians or Vorcha.

I'd hate to go there, it looks like all work and barely any play.

The bell rings, and a flood of students flow out of the doors and onto the streets. Nelon and I are sitting on top of a low-rise building with our HUD-glasses on, searching through the students with the zoom function.

The doctor nudges my arm and points down at a group of students gathering around a couple sky-cars. It's a mix of human, Turian and Asari, and they're just loitering around a pair of cars. Among them is our target, Charlie.

The group starts getting in the sky-cars, so Nelon and I get in our own and start it up. As they begin to drive away, we follow them at a distance, keeping the cars within sight, but not too close to be alarming.

We follow the two cars for nearly twenty minutes. The 'Arms' of the Citadel are huge, each Ward basically being a city. We head into what seems to be the 'slums' of the Kithoi Ward, though it's kind of hard to call it that as the legions of Keepers keep everything really clean.

The cars finally stop at a three story building that seems to be the base of a shipping company or something, I can't really read whatever language that's on the front of the building.

Nelon set's the car down on a nearby apartment building and we watch the group enter the building. "Well, that's not suspicious at all." I mutter to myself. "Why a group of teenagers would be coming to a shipping company if not for something illegal is a friggin' mystery to me. So that means they're either learning about the illustrious career of a manager in a small-time shipping company, or they're doing something that they shouldn't be doing, which means as the C-Sec officers, somewhat, that we are, Nelon, it is our duty to bring them in."

"Of course." He nods in assent. "Duty and all that."

We get back in the car and land it on the closest building, which seems to be some sort of warehouse. The gap between the buildings is about eight feet, and easily cleared by the both of us.

"Doc, run a scan on the building for cameras, please." I tell Nelon. He opens up his omni-tool and starts to tap away.

"Scan reports the presences of four cameras in the building: two out front, one on the middle floor and one in the basement." Nelon frowns, fingers tracing over the glowing tool in his hands. "Look at this."

Peeking over his shoulder, I can see two views of the front, one of a locked door in the basement, and the final view is of a group of people sitting around a room with various pipes, syringes and other paraphernalia, along with actual drugs as well.

"I see red sand, lotus, angel feathers, and marijuana. Only the marijuana is legal." Nelon tells me, his eyes scanning the room.

"So, this case just became a drug bust." I mutter, looking at Charlie Johnson sitting in a corner.

The door to the roof opens suddenly, spilling light onto the rooftop. The human sees us because we aren't really hiding, and his mouth opens and he starts to shout…

When Nelon's Cryo Blast hits him head-on and freezes him in place.

"Nice one, doc."

We wait for ten seconds for the ice to melt. As it fades, Nelon moves forward and punches the man right in face, knocking his ass out cold. He uses some omni-gel to make a pair of zip-tie cuffs and apply some sticky gel to gag the man on the ground.

I hack into the system and look over the cameras. I can't tell how many people there are beyond the stoned group, so we need to be cautious, as well as non-lethal if we can.

I say as much to the doctor, and we pull our guns. I basically copied Tagger for the doc, and in return he made the stun time last a lot longer and act more like a knock-out shot than a tazer, though that is still one the main functions. He also made it quieter, which is a plus.

The top floor is mostly empty, with maybe four cubicles and an office with the door locked. There's no one here either, which is good. I hack the door, and it slides open, showing a man in a middle-class suit wearily tapping away at the terminal in front of him.

As he looks up, my gun fires, the bullet crossing the distance before he can even blink. The rounds are modified so that they shatter on impact, scattering pieces of metal around the target and dispersing the charge at multiple points, instead of just punching straight through.

The man jerks in his chair, spasming as thousands of volts are directed into his body, and falls down, twitching. Nelon moves quickly, knocking him unconscious and binding and then gagging him.

The computer is unlocked, so I have access immediately. I open up the records and close the browser in the back with the porn on it.

Reading through the logs, I can come to two conclusions: either this man is stupid as all hell or he is aware of the smuggling and drug-dealing and is just being vague. Either way is really annoying.

"The company seems to be a front for a smuggling ring of some sort, along with a distribution center for some local dealers." I tell Nelon, who's finished with the manager and is flicking through a datapad.

"This man is stupid." He bluntly states, lightly kicking the man. "He's not aware of the smuggling or the drug dealing. He's been under the opinion that the floor below is under construction and has been for nearly a year. He also flirts with his secretary."

We copy down the information so we submit it as evidence later, and then move on. Nelon and I avoid the elevator and take the stairs.

I peek out of the door and see two guys standing around the hall, smoking something. "Two guys, three meters on the first and seven on the second. Which one do you want?" I ask the doc, readying my gun.

"I'll take the nearest. Can you close the distance quietly and subdue the other?" He replies.

"Of course. On three." I raise three fingers and put them down one at a time.

We dash through the door: Nelon leaps and lands on his guys' shoulders, twisting and throwing him to floor while discharging a weaker Overload into the guy and knocking him out.

I imagine pulling a rubber band softly and letting go, charging across the distance between us. The man turns, legs spread with his hands going for the gun under his jacket, but he's too slow. I kick my legs out and slide between his, punching him square in the balls as I go. The guy folds, mouth open and trying to scream, but pain has disabled his vocal cords temporarily, which is just fine to me.

I tap my boots on the floor and jump up and back, bringing my elbow down on the back of his head, knocking him into sweet unconsciousness. I cuff his hands and gag him, setting him against the wall with the other similarly trussed up guy that Nelon took down.

"Can you crack this door open just enough to fit through?" I ask the doctor, holding up a slim black disc.

He nods and commands the door to open about two inches, and I roll the disc through the crack and into the center of the room. We don our sunglasses and I count down from three. On one, I detonate the flash-bang grenade and hit the holo-switch.

We burst through the door, guns kicking in our hands. He takes the left and I take the right, mowing down the boys and girls inside with electric rounds that fry the drugs right out of them.

It's over in twenty seconds. With the flash-bang going off, added with the already addled states of their minds, they couldn't defend against our onslaught.

Nelon and I move through the room, cuffing and gagging the kids and then lining them up and taking pictures of their faces. I tap out the number for C-Sec while Nelon gathers the drugs and stuff for evidence.

"Hey, it's Dewitt and Nelon, we've got a drug den and a smuggler's hideout at 362458 in the Kithoi Ward, Shipping District." I say to the person on the other line.

"Do you need back up?" The rough male voice asks.

"Nope. We already have the people inside the den cuffed, and we're going for the hideout next."

"Alright, I dispatch a few squads to your location. Call if you need anything, Bailey out."

Nelon's done with his deed, so we move down. The lobby has only a secretary.

The doc and I come up behind her with our guns out, and she surrenders without a fuss, so we move down after cuffing her as well.

The basement door opens, showing us a Turian with a shotgun pointed at us. Before he can even squeeze off a round, Nelon freezes him with a Cryo Blast.

I pry the shotgun out of the Turian's hands, wait for him to thaw, and then club him over the head with it. "You're good with the Cryo, doc. I need to buy one of those modules."

The doctor taps his omni-tool and sends a packet to me. "I already have one for you. Sending it now."

I look up from my cuffing and gagging and stare at the doctor. "You've had the module all along and you're just giving it to me now?"

He smiles, holstering his gun. "Dramatic timing."

"You can be a dick sometimes, doc."

"I know."

We spread out, looking through the crates of smuggled goods. I find a few guns along with some illegal mods, and a curved knife of Turian origin.

The last box I find is small, black and sealed airtight. The only marking on it is a circle, half of it white, and the other half of it with three wavy lines. It opens after a minute of hacking, hissing as the atmosphere escapes.

It contains a grip, for something like a pistol or a knife perhaps, and nothing else. Weird. What the hell is this supposed to be?

I grab the grip, and it settles into my hand perfectly. The top has a slot, like that for a really big coin, and small switch on the side.

Using my powers of common sense, I deduct that the switch activates something inside, and I point the opening away from my face and flick the switch.

The device hums and a something blue shoots out, stopping around two-and-a-half feet, humming softly.

This can't be what I think it is. No way.

One of the crates had shoes to cover up the illegal cargo, so I grab one of those and toss it into the air. As it comes down, I swing on it.

The blue blade slices through the shoes with ease, leaving two slightly melting halves of shoe on the floor.

It is what I think it is.

I just found a fucking lightsaber.

…

After pulling off the section of box marked with the little sigil, I disposed of the box and hid the lightsaber away.

C-Sec shows up maybe ten minutes later and takes custody of the people inside. From what I can tell, the manager won't face too many charges but will most likely be fired for incompetence. The secretary won't face anything, this was her first day on the job after her predecessor quit due to sexual harassment. The Turian and the other humans who lead the whole thing would face charges of smuggling, dealing and distributing illegal drugs and weaponry. The teenagers would face a fine, a stern warning and the disappointment of their parents.

Nelon and I brought Karlie to her son's cell to speak to him after she paid us. A job is a job.

"Why would you do this, Charlie?!" She's ranting at her son. "What would your father say?!"

I can see the tensing of Charlie's shoulders. He's nearly vibrating with anger in his seat, listening to his mother rant at him.

"Red Sand, Charlie? How could you?" She screams, and Charlie snaps.

"I did for Shane!" He shouts, jumping up and looking his mom in the eye for the first time.

His mom recoils like she's been smacked. "What? Why?"

"Red Sand lets you feel what it's like to be a biotic." He explains, glaring at his mother. "After you kicked Shane out for having 'unholy' powers and he joined the Alliance, I want to feel closer to my brother! He was my only friend in this damn place!"

"You know," I interject, causing both of the fighting people to stop and look at me. "The Alliance has a cadet program for those sixteen and seventeen if they want to join the Alliance straight out of school. Schooling is free and service is guaranteed if you complete the course."

The hopeful look in Charlie's eyes contrasts the horror in Karlie's perfectly. "Really?" He asks.

I nod. "Yeah. They don't take drug addicts, though."

Charlie rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well…to tell you the truth, I didn't actually take any." He admits. "I was going to, but you came in before I could."

Karlie cuts in. "Charles Samuel Johnson! You will not join the Alliance, and you will not do any drugs! Am I clear?!"

Charlie looks to me and Nelon, then back to his mother. "Mom. Shut up. You can't tell me what to do. Ever since dad died you've been so controlling. It's time you stopped coddling me and let me be my own person."

"I was only protecting you!" She screams, tears streaming down her face. "When Shane…when he did that…that thing, and hit you in the face with that vase, I thought you were dead!"

"Things happen, mom. Shane didn't mean to do it, and you know that." The young man shakes his head. "You really hurt him when you kicked him out. I…I don't want to talk to you right now, mom."

He sits down, looking at the wall, ignoring his mom's presence entirely. Karlie stares at her son in horror, before running from the station in tears.

On one hand, we may have just destroyed the relationship between mother and son, but we gave a young, troubled man a chance to step out and grow up.

Nothing ever comes without a cost, it seems.

I can't wait for tomorrow.

…

**A/N: It took longer than I thought it would for this to come about, but my muse was like, "Go do something else, I'm tired of thinking, asshole!"**

**My muse can be kind of bitch sometimes.**

**Anyway, hope you liked it.**

**Read, Review and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S.: It's not a lightsaber. It'll be explained.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	13. A Meeting of Minds and Bodies

Nelon bursts through the bathroom door, waving his hands and jabbering in excitement. "The lightsaber, it's a marvel! It's actually a hard-light construct that's contained within a mass effect field that's emitted from inside the hilt, but here's the best part!" He's talking quickly, barely stopping to take a breath. "The light is created by small nuclear battery and then focused through a crystal and refined through a lens. The lens itself is made from hundreds of layers of delicately created diamond, and that alone is worth maybe twenty million credits, but the biggest part is the focusing crystal." Nelon opens up his omni-tool and brings up a holo-graphic representation of the crystal itself. "It's made up of completely solid crystal Element Zero. Eezo crystals are so rare that even the smallest ones go for trillions of credits, and this one is _four inches long._ That's the longest crystal ever found, not to mention the weight. I ran the price range through the computer, and it came out in the quadrillions."

So, it was a mobile fortune that could by a small planet. Nice to know. "Doc, while this is all well and good, I'm showering."

Nelon finally looks at me, his eyes widening. "Oh…ah, yes, of course. Excuse me." He hurriedly leaves, embarrassed.

As I get back to washing my bod, I can't help but reflect on what happened. After we left the C-Sec holding cells, Nelon and I came home, ate a meal prepared for us by Ms. Hudson, and then went to bed. It's probably five o'clock, and I've just finished showering and washing the dye out of my hair, and now I'm going to shave. I'm meeting Tevos today for the first time in awhile. The plan is to spend the whole day together in a hotel room, doing fun things and de-stressing.

I'd handed Nelon my lightsaber for him to look it over and see what it was made of and how it works, though I made it perfectly clear that if he broke my fucking lightsaber I was going to hurt him really bad. He rigged up a medical scanner to scan the lightsaber, and apparently had been freaking the fuck out the whole night.

I turn the shower off dry myself off, slathering my face with shaving cream and going at it with my razor. Laser-razors gave me a rash after the couple of times I used it, so I went back to the metal blades.

After that, I dry myself, dress myself and make my way to Nelon's lab. I'm not expecting to run into trouble, but Tagger and my lightsaber will go a long way to protect me and Tevos if our biotics are not enough.

The door opens and I walk in, avoiding the scattered datapads on the floor and approaching Nelon. He's fussing over the lightsaber and muttering to himself and twitching.

The doctor nearly jumps out of his skin as reach out and grab the hilt. "Sprits! Saul, warn me next time!"

He's got a hand over his heart and panting. "Sorry doc, I just came in to get my blade. Also, I'm taking the day off, and you should too. Coffee is bad for you, and you need sleep."

He protests weakly as I drag him his bed, but he doesn't resist and collapses on the mattress without any fuss. "You don't need to worry about someone stealing the blade," Nelon says, eyelids fluttering. "The case it was kept in was hermetically sealed because the grip contains a DNA scanner that only works for the first person to pick it up. It'll electrocute anyone else."

Nice to know. "Nelon, no talk, sleep now. Before I knock you out." As I say that, he slumps and begins to snore. Well, that was rude.

I leave him there and lock the door as I go. Tagger goes on my back underneath my jacket, and the lightsaber hilt is slipped into a knife holster on my left wrist, so I can reach my right hand into my sleeve, grab it and activate it as I pull it out. I doubt I'll need it, though.

I call a taxi and make my way to the address, which is somewhere on the Bachjret Ward. It takes maybe an hour or so to get there, and 'there' is a skyscraper. Much like most buildings on the Citadel, it's white with grey and off-white undertones.

Checking my watch, I find that I'm right on time, and I enter through the doors and walk up to front desk. The Asari on the other side is, like almost all of the Asari I've met, very beautiful and fit. "Hi. I need to see Tenya."

She smiles and half-bows. "Well, good thing I'm Tenya. What do you need me for?"

I lean in. "I'm meeting someone here at six thirty in room…1000C."

"Ah." She nods and types at her terminal. "I see. Here's your key. The rooms been paid in full already, so all that you need to do is take the lift to the top floor. Have a good day."

I thank her and take my key, which is a small square of plastic. As I come to the lift, I start to dread what I'm about to experience, but the lift is surprisingly quick. It zooms up the side of the building in about two minutes. Outside of the walls, which are sealed, the top of the building is outside of the artificial atmosphere, so breaking one of the windows would be a bad thing. Thankfully, they're very thick.

There's only four rooms on the 1000th floor, and all of them are large suites. The door slides open after I wave my key through the holo-lock, and I see a pair of comfortable couches in the middle of the room, along with a large holo-tv, a coffee table, a kitchen, and a door that leads into the bathroom, along with another door that leads to the bedroom.

There's a pair of shoes and a jacket by the door, so I kick off my shoes and hang my jacket up, storing the hilt away in my pocket.

Tevos is staring out of the window as I enter the room. She's wearing simple clothing, and it's a steep contrast to the expensive dresses she usually wears. It's just a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans, or what amounts to jeans these days. They're delightfully tight but not showy, and her feet are bare.

She doesn't turn, so I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her stomach. "Credit for your thoughts?" To her credit, Tevos didn't jump. She just sighs and leans back into my chest.

One her hands is stroking my arm and the other is clasping my hand. "I was just thinking." Tevos says, her eyes staring out into space. "In a couple of years, the Citadel will be burning. It's terrible, knowing what's going to happen and not being able to do more about it."

"Yeah. I feel the same." I tell her, stroking her stomach. "But we can change some things, no matter how small now. What have you been doing? There's only so much I can do as a relative unknown at this time."

Tevos shifts in my arms and lays her head on my shoulder, her hands resting on my back. "I've increased the demand for commandos and ships subtly. Some will believe that I'm trying to build an army for action against the other species perhaps, but I'll handle it when it comes up. I've also ordered a few of my most trusted scientists to look deeper into the Prothean Archives on Thessia, and started a few operations to remove Cerberus presence in Council space."

Well damn. I haven't really done shit compared to Tevos. Dude.

She seems to sense my mood shift and hugs me tightly. "You shouldn't think like that. You're right when you say you don't have a big presence yet, but you are helping, no matter how little."

As reassuring as Tevos is, the question remains: can she read my mind?

"Maybe."

I'm just a little freaked out now, but the playful smile on her face tells me she's not serious. "You are an awesome woman, you know that?" I tilt her chin up and plant a kiss on her lips, gently molding our mouths together.

We pull apart and smile at each other. "I can feel how tense you are. Let me massage that away, huh?" I say, gently pulling at her shirt.

Tevos turns around and pulls her shirt off, hiding her front from me and showing her smooth blue skin. She reaches down and pushes her pants and underwear down at the same time, exposing her toned blue rear to my sight.

She lies down on the bed with her arms cradling her head. I shuck off my shirt and straddle the back of her thighs and go to work, my hands on her neck, my thumbs digging into the soft flesh of her shoulders. As I massage the knots away, I marvel at the feel of her skin. It's a deep azure color, marked with scars here and there, but they don't do anything to detract from her beauty. The little white marks and the small lifted dots actually enhance her looks to me. It tells me that she fought and killed to get to where she is, that she clawed and bit and fought to live and succeeded.

One of the things I had found out during the relaxation party is about Asari culture. The Asari share a few characteristics with Krogan, the main one being the strong leading the weak. Asari Matriarchs are the most powerful biotics, the strongest warriors and shrewdest politicians. Being the representative of the whole species, Tevos is the best soldier that the Asari have, which is kind of unfortunate considering all her jobs consists of is politicking throughout the day.

I think the Asari let people think they're a species of strippers and loose women when, in fact, the soft-spoken but firm leader they have could rip them in half with her mind.

That's hot. I may be strange, but a strong woman who could kick my ass is the sexiest damn thing ever.

I move down her back, digging into her back and loosening every knot I can find and gently rubbing the tenseness away. Tevos is moaning under my ministrations, and even when she's not trying to be sexy she's sexy. She squirms as I dig into the base of her spine, which seems to be a tender zone on her, given the fact that she sits in a seat all day or stands to deal with politicians.

I move down to her ass, and while I'm massaging her back side, I can't help but remember the time Tevos jumped up on the coffee table and danced, shouting at her online opponent to 'kiss my shiny blue ass!'

Tevos gasps when she feels my lips descend on left cheek. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I just remembered that one time when yelled 'kiss my shiny blue ass' and decided to oblige you." And then I kiss the other cheek and move down her legs. It's kind of hard to restrain myself from doing more, but she needs some stress relief, and we've got the whole day to ourselves, no need to rush things.

Tevos twitches and giggles as I rub her feet and kiss her toes. "Flip over." I say, and she lays on her back, not bothering to cover herself. It's not as if I haven't seen her naked before.

I massage the top of her feet, moving on to her legs and then her thighs, doing my very best to ignore the moisture I can see glistening between her legs. I move up, straddling her thighs and massaging her hips. As I move up, I see the multitude of scars marking her front.

There's a small cluster mid-way on the left side of her abdomen of little scars that taper off into points.

Tevos sees my gaze and speaks. "That one happened seven hundred years ago. A Krogan swallowed twenty frag grenades and tried to tackle me. I didn't about the grenades until he exploded, and some of the shrapnel breached my armor and my shields."

After I massage the spot, I lean down and kiss it. The next one is small trench of rough light blue skin that stretches maybe two inches down her stomach. "A Turian assassin got too close a hundred years ago and got a talon into my gut. I managed to kill him before he could rip my stomach open."

I kiss it and move on, coming to an oval pattern of small puckered marks. "A human pulled a shotgun on me twenty years ago. He managed to get a round through my barrier before one of the humans, a man named Anderson, shot him in the back of the head. There was almost an incident, but he and I managed to calm the others down. I think he was a corporal at the time."

My lips touch her skin on every mark as if I'm paying penance for one my species hurting her. There's a circular mark that covers the middle of her chest, reaching over to cover a good portion of her left breast. "My best friend and I got into a fight when we were Maidens, and she hit me with a Warp right in the chest. She stopped it before it killed me, and we made up later. Her name is Aethyta, I think you met her?"

"Yeah. She's the one who arm-wrestled Aria." I reply, planting a multitude of kisses on the marks.

The last one on her chest is a circle maybe an inch wide between her shoulder and her right breast. "A Batarian sniper hit me with a round from a Harpoon, nearly took my shoulder off. I crushed his head with my biotics and killed his friends before I collapsed."

I massage the spot and kiss it, moving down her arms. Even after being a politician for hundreds of years, she still has very impressive tone throughout her whole body. It's like she's a core of corded steel wrapped in layers of soft, warm velvet. On her right forearm is a set of gashes that covers the top and the bottom and meeting on the inside. "A Varren caught me by surprise and clamped down on my arm. I managed to beat it off with my shotgun before I blew its' brains out. I later had it for dinner."

The left arm has a large scar that separates half of her arm from the other. "During the Krogan Rebellions, one of the Battlemasters charged through my shields and took my arm off with a ceremonial knife. I hit him in the crotch with a Warp and shoved a grenade in his mouth. I had to carry my severed arm back to camp, and they barely managed to get it reattached."

My hands ascend to cup her cheeks, and although there isn't much to massage, I still rub them with my thumbs before I start on her crests. "I know we have the technology to remove scars. Do you think I should?" Her green-flecked eyes lock onto mine, and I can see the question in them.

"No." I don't even have to think about my answer. "Your scars are one of the things that make you even more beautiful in my eyes. They tell me that you've fought and bled to get where you are."

It's like she's staring into my soul, trying to discern if my honesty. "Good answer." She mumbles, before lacing her hands behind my head and pulling me down, our lips meeting and joining. Our tongues don't battle. It's like a hug, except with our tongues. It's not a battle or a dance, it's a conjoining.

When we separate, Tevos smiles. "I missed that." She admits, and I have no trouble admitting that I missed this closeness too. "How about we take a bath?"

"Well, I took a shower before-" I cut myself off. What the fuck is wrong with me? This beautiful woman is asking me to bathe with her! And here I am trying to put it off! Where is my honor and integrity as a man?

I step off of Tevos and pick her up, bridal style, and take her out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. Thanks to the marvels of technology, all it takes is a few taps of my omni-tool and the bath is already running, steam pouring into the air at the same rate as the water into the tub.

The bath is big enough for four people, but after discarding the rest of my clothes, I sit Tevos square in my lap. The water rises until it covers everything but our faces. She twists until she's lying on top of me, gently grabs my arousal, and slowly drops until I'm fully inside of her.

The soft motions barely rock the water. The movement doesn't matter here. We don't need wild thrust or the screaming of each other's names; while that's all well and good, today is about relaxing. Her soft moans mix with mine as her eyes blacken and we are one once more. Even after we've climaxed together, she doesn't move and neither do I; we simply stay with each other, being one with each other.

It may sound 'girly' or whatever, but bite me. There's a time and place for wild sex and this is not it.

I don't know how long we've been in the bath until the alarm on my omni-tool chimes, breaking the gaze Tevos and I have been sharing since the very beginning. It's twelve-thirty, so we have thirty minute until our reservation is up.

"What's the alarm for?" She asks, her eyes fading back to blue.

"I made a reservation somewhere special for us, and it's at one." I tell her, gently removing myself from her and rinsing both of us down. "Do you have something to disguise your features?"

She nods and steps out, wrapping herself in a towel. "Of course. It's a flesh-mask that alters features, and is also illegal. I may or may not have skimmed a pair from a bust." The playful wink she gives me is teasing, as is the quick flash of her front when she opens her towel quickly.

We dress and put the masks on. The mask itself is like a clear latex-like thing that covers the entirety of our faces. Her face shifts as the mask activates, her cheekbones lowering, her jaw jutting out a little, her nose taking a different shape, her eyes turning brown and her scalps becoming light blue, losing the paint entirely. She looks nothing like Councilor Tevos. With the addition of different clothes, I doubt there is anyone who could recognize her at all.

Looking in the mirror, I can see my own features change until my face is completely foreign to myself. My forehead is lowered and my eyebrows thicken, casting my dark brown eyes in a broody shadow. My nose gets bigger and arches, until it's no longer a nose and is now a schnoz. My lips get bigger and become sort of pouty as my cheekbones get higher.

I now look like a broody bastard that many women would consider handsome and guys would consider dickish. I have to restrain myself from punching myself in the face just on principle.

We take the lift down and call a sky-car. After I type in the coordinates, we sit back and relax a little. Tevos and I don't talk, we simply enjoy the atmosphere in the car.

The car jerks a little, accelerating to unsafe levels. "What the hell?" I mutter to myself as I sit up and try to take control of the car, only to find that the system had locked me out. My omni-tool flashes as I start hacking into the car.

The car jerks, throwing me and Tevos onto the floor as the engine starts to whine, before everything stops. The lights die, the engine stops and the car starts to fall.

The fact that we miss everything on the way down is nothing less than a fucking miracle. Tevos and I trade glances, coming to the same conclusion and a plan at the same time. Someone knows who she is and is trying to kill the both of us. As the car nears the ground, Tevos uses her biotics to Lift us out of gravity's hold as I create a Barrier around us.

The car hits the ground and skids, coming to a halt with the crunch and screech of metal being punched out of shape.

Her Lift fades, as does my Barrier. Something heavy hits the ground outside, and we peek out at a large, industrial crate hitting the ground. The door opens, showing us the many stacks of thin mechs stuffed inside.

"_Enemy in sight."_

Shit.

…

**A/N: And there you go. Next chapter, lightsaber action.**

**Any questions you have, leave a review or PM me.**

**So, the lightsaber is basically a lightsaber using ME tech, which was my thought anyway. You don't get to see much of the Asari culture, so I took some liberties to create a bit of my own to add to it. It still fits in, and it makes sense. A species of women letting the preconceptions of other species make them seem less dangerous while still being capable of great feats of strength. Benezia does make a big deal of facing Asari Commandos, so I added a reason.**

**Read, Review and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S.: there wasn't a lot of sex in this chapter, and that was kind of the point. All of the women met in this story have different personalities and 'types', as it were. Tevos is a tender, caring relationship. Aria is a wild, aggressive relationship. Benezia is a longing relationship, while Tela is a mysterious relationship. The others will be revealed in time. There was a reason Joker called Saul a man-whore in chapter three.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	14. Super Ethical Mech Murdering Mayhem

Most of these mechs have really shitty pistols, nothing a good Barrier couldn't defend against, but the volume was a problem. I only have Tagger and my lightsaber with me, and Tevos doesn't have either of those.

Four mechs float into the air, encased in blue energy, before they come crashing down on top of another pair, crushing all of them into pieces. An orb of Biotic energy flies out and impacts, detonating the previous field and taking another four out.

But then again, Tevos doesn't need an energy sword or a gun to kill things. And still, more pour out of the container. "Throw out a Singularity!" I yell, pointing at the middle of the group.

Tevos pulls her hand back and throws a scintillating ball of energy that lands in the middle of the mechs, bursting into a large ball of dark energy that latches on to some of the nearby mechs and pulls them into orbit around the center.

I push the rush of energy in my hand and hurl it into the Singularity. It detonates with three times the force of a normal biotic explosion, which is due to the explosive nature of my own biotics.

The force from the explosion knocks the container over, destroying the other mechs inside.

"I don't know what we're supposed to do." Tevos says, cracking her fingers. "We could call C-Sec, but we don't know how good the hacker is. They could drive the vehicles right into us. But, we also need to find out who is doing this. If they know about our relationship, they need to be silenced."

I beckon her to follow me with a crooked finger. I jog over to one of the destroyed mechs and grab one of the intact heads. "We can hack these mechs and find out where the controlling signal is coming from, narrow down where whoever is doing this is, and find them."

My fingers dance over the glowing orange gauntlet on my arm, speedily hacking the fading systems. Just before it dies, I'm successful in cracking the encrypted signal. "The signal leads to a point about eighty meters that way," I say, pointing down a path that cuts through hundreds of thousands of cargo containers. "Do you want my gun?"

She looks at Tagger in my hands and takes the gun after I adjust it to be a lot more lethal. "What about you?" Tevos asks, looking at me as if expecting me to pull another gun out of a pocket or something.

The grin on my face is probably scary. "Oh, I've got something to defend myself, don't worry about that."

She shrugs and starts off toward the direction I pointed out earlier, with me following behind her. There are smaller containers littered throughout the area, as if the people transporting them just left them and took a break.

One of the containers we just passed cracks open, releasing a swarm of mechs at us. Tevos spins, unleashing a Shockwave that decimates a good many and knocks others onto the ground, where she finishes them off with a few well-placed rounds.

I ignore the bullets bouncing off of my barrier and dash forward, my right hand coming up the grasp the hilt of the lightsaber on my left wrist. As the first mech comes into range, I pull the hilt out, activating the blade as I pull, and the top half of the mech, arms and all, go spinning away as the legs collapse. I plant my left foot and pivot, slashing my blade up and across, bisecting another with a hum.

It's weird. My body moves on its' own, flowing around the mechs and turning them into piles of scrap in less than a second. I move towards the last, dodging a barrage of bullets and bringing my blade down, slicing the arms away, then slice up, separating the torso. As it falls, I bring the lightsaber down one more time, cutting the head away.

Looking back on the pile of dead droids, I can only feel excited. "That was fucking awesome." I say to myself.

Tevos is looking at me like I'm some sort of strange being. "Where the hell did you get a lightsaber?" She asks incredulously. I nearly forgot that she's seen my memories, ergo the knowledge of Star Wars.

"I found it in a drug/smugglers' den. It was hidden pretty well, and sealed in an airtight container. It apparently contains the biggest Eezo crystal ever found inside." Her eyes get wide, almost bulging out of her head.

"Damn." She mutters, staring at the blade in my hands appreciatively.

"Hey now," I admonish her, deactivating the blade, making her look at me. "It scanned me the first time I picked it up, so I'm the only who can use it. Don't get any funny ideas."

The pouts she gives me makes her look like a child denied a new toy, and it's really fucking cute.

A cargo container opens, admitting a slew of droids out onto the floor. My heart begins to hammer in my chest, and a move I've be trying to perfect recently comes to mind. "Hold on a second, I want to try something." I tell Tevos.

I crouch slightly, and as I push off, I lock myself onto a mech in the middle of the group and Charge forward.

The momentum generated from the jump, along with the carrying force from the Charge lets me leap directly over obstacles that can't be phased through with Charge alone.

I sail over the distance, my blade snapping to life as I jump. The glowing blue saber cuts through the first mech, and I dash forward, cutting through another, and spin, slicing three more in half. As I land, I direct biotic force into my hand, and instead of shaping it, I just let it go. The wave of force lifts several mechs into the air throws them back into the cargo container they came out of, destroying them.

I slash forward, separating another mech from its' head, and follow through with swing, spinning and cutting through another pair. I jump over the head of the last and come down behind it, my blade stabbing through the stomach.

I deactivate the blade and turn around, grinning at Tevos as the mech falls to the ground, dead.

She points at me and states, "I'm going to steal that move, just so you know."

"Go ahead, I don't mind. I've been working on maybe three moves that start with Charge." I shrug. It's true. I've been trying to come up with my own moves using biotics, and since a good few already resemble Force powers, I might as well try my hand at it. I call that one 'Leap'. I know it's not very imaginative, bite me. "The signal's about forty meters away, let's get-"

The ground in front of us rumbles, and rises to different heights. "Great," Tevos mutters, "The hacker raised the cargo platforms. Fun. At least I'll get to try out that move."

Not really. There aren't any targets to 'lock on' to. But I have just the thing. "Leap won't work without a target, but I have been working on a different move. I call it, 'Float'."

It's based on that one time in ME2 where Samara jumps from about twenty feet up and uses her biotics to float herself down. Similar concept, just the opposite direction.

"It's basically using Pull on yourself to jump higher and farther than you can originally." I explain, and Tevos nods with a thoughtful expression on her face. Facing the rise of platforms, she crouches and beings to glow blue. With a small grunt of exertion, she jumps, throwing herself about twelve feet up in an arc, leaving a trail of blue behind her.

It's not enough for her to make the top, but she lands on one of the struts and jumps again, clearing the top easily.

"How the fuck is that fair?!" I yell at her in mock anger. "I've been trying to do that for two months and you do it twenty seconds? What the hell?!"

Tevos grins down at me, hands on her hips. "Saul, I'm 846 years old! I know some shit!"

Alright, let's do this. I step back a few feet and crouch in a sprinter's position. Okay, same basic idea as Leap except with Pull as the Biotic factor instead of Charge.

My body begins to glow blue as I push myself forward off my front foot, and I jump, mentally creating a biotic field around myself, pulling the field up.

This is awesome. It's almost like flying.

I forget that I'm heading towards a platform, and impact into the top, the lip punching the air out of my lungs. Tevos kneels and grabs one of my hands and pulls me up with her. "That wasn't so bad, was it? You just need to stay on target." I know Tevos is teasing me, and the look I give her is a blank glare that makes her laugh in amusement. I shut her up real quick with a surprise kiss with my tongue pushing into her open mouth. Her arms come up around my shoulders and pull us together tightly.

"_Target in sight."_

Oh yeah, we're in danger. I forgot about that.

I swing around and launch an Overload at the nearest mech. Tevos shatters the head with a pair of rounds and the system go haywire and explode, taking out a few more.

Leaping forward, I land on the edge of a crate and flip, my lightsaber flashing down and cutting a mech in half. The blade is my hand cuts through the ceramics and metals of the droids like a hot knife through butter, leaving scraps of rapidly cooling circuits in my wake.

Tevos picks off a few with well-place rounds, and then hurls a bolt of biotic energy that crashes into a group of four mechs and throws them into another pair, destroying all.

We move forward, Tevos hanging back to barrage the walking piles of scrap with bullets and biotics, and I leap right into the middle, lightsaber flashing, dismembering any mechs in my way.

Now, we're within ten meters of the signals originating point. The platforms here are lower than they are previously, and we can see the control tower. The window is tinted, but I can see a figure behind the glass rapidly typing at a terminal. "Look, there's our hacker. Let's end this, Tevos."

The Asari councilor nods with determination and readies my pistol. "Yes, let's. This isn't what I imagined a relaxing day to be like."

I crouch and drop over the final platform, landing ten feet below. The ground comes up in a slow rise that leads to the control tower.

A cargo transport arm stops in front of us, carrying a large white box that shines. I recognize that damn box. "Shit. Big mech incoming!"

The arm looses its' cargo, and the box hits the ground twenty feet away. The box unfolds, coming to a stop somewhere around ten feet tall, a cylindrical head with a red eight figure in the plate stares ominously at us, the deep bass voice reverberating around the open space.

"_**Target systems, online."**_

It's a fucking YMIR mech, chain-gun and rocket launcher all loaded and ready to mulch us. The gun on the right arm begins to spool up and we dive for cover.

The hail of bullets that follow tear into the crate we've hidden behind, eating the cover away rapidly.

As it winds down, Tevos and I pop up. My Overload impacts the shields harshly and staggers the giant mech, and the barrage from Tevos eats away at the shields.

Deciding that it's had enough of our shit, the mech hunches over slightly and opens up the left arm, the cannon inside wining.

Tevos goes left while dive right, just in time to avoid the rocket that obliterates our cover. My Asari companion rolls to her feet and activates the Marksman module installed in Tagger and makes it rain on the YMIR, the shields flickering and finally giving out.

Deciding that the Councilor is the bigger threat, it turns the chain-gun on her and starts to fire, stomping towards her cover.

I pop up, omni-tool loaded with Incineration tech in one hand and biotic energy that tears at the air around it in the other. The Incinerate impacts a second before the Warp. The explosion knocks the mech off balance long enough for Tevos to hop up and fire her own Warp at the mech. The two fields mesh and explode violently, tearing of chunks of ceramic off of the giant metal bastard as armor sloughs off of its' body to the ground in clumps, exposing delicate systems to our view.

I turn and Leap at the nearest wall, landing on it and pushing myself off and up, turning around in mid-air and activating my lightsaber, bringing the glowing blade down into the back of the YMIR with a savage cry.

Servos whine and screech as it tries to shake me off, the mech stumbling around almost drunkenly. Planting my feet on its' back, I jump up and stab down through the neck, severing the last systems and killing the damn thing for good.

The mech slumps and I dive away as it explodes into pieces. "That looked as badass as it felt, right?" I ask Tevos hopefully, storing my lightsaber in the holster on my left wrist.

She shrugs. "Meh, I've seen better." Tevos shoots me a teasing grin. "Three and a half out of five."

I mock growl at her. "You're asking for a spanking, young lady."

We share a laugh and then climb up the final scaffolding. The person inside knows we're outside, as the door locks, and then goes inert. "Smart. Killing power to the door so it can't be hacked. Too bad I have a master key!"

I've always wanted to do this. The lightsaber ignites in my hand, humming with energy. I pull the blade back and then stab it forward, plunging it through the door near the top. I hear a squeak of shock from inside and the clatter of things falling to the ground. The material the door is made of turns orange and melts, and I drag the blue blade down, cutting through the ceramic easily. I get near the ground and drag it back up, making a sort of tear-shape that we can fit through just fine.

The lightsaber is deactivated but not stored away, and I bow to Tevos. "Ladies first."

She bows back, lowers the lethality of my pistol and then charges forward, her leg surrounded by a glowing blue field as she delivers a biotically enhanced kick to the center of the door.

The section is flung into the room, crashing into the distant wall. A scream of fear, enhanced by a synthetic quality, sounds out from the far corner, where a woman in a tight suit with a hood is cowering with her arms over head. Said arms have only three fingers on the hands.

"A Quarian?" Tevos sounds as surprised as I feel. "Why would a Quarian try to kill me?"

The girl shoots up from her cowering position, shakily pointing a finger at Tevos. "You know what you did! You killed my brother to cover up your crimes, you evil bitch!"

Blinking in shock, I turn to the Asari next to me. "Alright, Tevos, there are some things we need to talk about."

The tone is bland, but I can see just how confused she is. Before she can speak, the Quarian interrupts. "Wait, Tevos? The Asari Councilor?"

"Uh, yeah. Aren't you trying to kill us because we're having an affair?" I ask rather stupidly.

The glowing eyes behind the visor blink a few times. "…No?"

I blink in return. "…Then what was with crashing the car and the metric shit-load of mechs?"

She points a finger at Tevos. "That's Jona Sederis' face."

Ah. That psychopathic bitch leading a part of the Eclipse. That explains a lot of things. I reach up and deactivate the mask on my head, letting my real features show, as does Tevos. "That explains a lot." Tevos admits, uncharacteristically blushing in embarrassment. Her visage turns serious. "What are we going to do with you? You know about me and Saul, and that can't get out."

The Quarian waves her hands rapidly in front of her. "Wait, wait! I won't tell anyone, I swear!"

"How can we be sure of that?" I ask, playing devil's advocate. "If we let you go, you could just go back on your word and tell the press, and that would a cause of whole lot of trouble."

"I won't tell anyone, I swear on my ancestors and my name as Kaia'Shal nar Idenna! Please, I didn't mean to find out, I just wanted to kill Jona Sederis, don't kill me!" The poor girl is sobbing hysterically, her hands covering her face plate, shoulders shaking and generally looking terrified.

I step forward and wrap my arms around her, hugging her close. Kaia stiffens at first, but relaxes and clutches onto as she cries. I look to Tevos, who shares a regretful look with me. I motion for her to come and join me in comforting the girl, and she comes up and hugs her from behind, holding her between us.

Kaia eventually ceases crying, only shuddering once in awhile. "Thank you," She whispers, even though we should be apologizing for scaring her like that.

"Sorry about that." I say apologetically. "We shouldn't have taken it that far." Tevos nods in agreement.

"I'm sorry I tried to kill you…" she mumbles back.

"Well, while getting shot at by mechs was really irritating, I'm impressed. Hacking that many mechs at one time, along with the floors and the cargo containers takes talent." I easily admit, giving praise to girls' skill.

"Thanks…" Kaia says, and I'm pretty sure she's blushing under that mask.

Looking out of the window, I can see the destruction that we left in our trail, some places still smoldering from explosions. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I think we should get the fuck out of here before C-Sec shows up."

…

During the ride back, we explain many things to Kaia, such as the reason behind the affair (we met one day and connected), how Tevos was there when the Councilor was in the Council chambers at the same time, and about our plans for the future (We're trying to reach out to the other species to end conflict and make a peaceful galaxy, which isn't really a lie).

As we finally landed back at the motel, we came to a few agreements. Tevos would take Kaia on as a Personal Assistant, as a way to give her a job and housing she needs, as well as showing Tevos as trying to lessen the political tensions between the other species by giving someone of a species considered to be made up of nothing but thieves an important job.

In return, she got experience, created a better image for her people, and would keep our little dalliance a secret. Not to mention companionship. Turns out, she was one of the rare pairs of Quarian twins. Her brother had left on his Pilgrimage, went to Omega and got caught up as a hacker for the Eclipse. He had gathered evidence as leverage, but never got to use it as Sederis mutilated him. He managed to send the data to Kaia, and she had heard that Sederis was on the Citadel, hacked several cameras and searched for Jona Sederis, and ended up finding Tevos wearing her face, and that was that.

I nod to Tenya as we pass on to the lift. A Turian is already waiting by the elevator. He nods to us, but his face turns harsh (maybe) at the sight of Kaia's eviro-suit. He doesn't say anything as we get on the lift, but he's tense.

The Turian's patience finally runs out and he snaps. "What is one these suit-rats doing in a fancy place like this? Come to steal the sheets?"

I turn to face the Turian, my mask making me more threatening. "Hey pal, what floor are you on?"

He's surprised by the question, but answers. "800…"

"Do you know how long it would take for someone to hit the ground after being thrown out of a window on the 800th floor?"

"Uh…no?"

"Well," I smile, showing my teeth. "How about you shut the hell the up and we don't find out?"

Basically: Shut up, or I'm throwing you out of a window.

He stiffens, and the lifts chimes on floor 800, and the Turian walks out quickly.

"Thanks…" Kaia mumbles, unused to someone defending her from hateful words. I pat her on the shoulder.

The door opens, and we return to the suite. As I order from room service, our reservation very much missed, Tevos hands the Quarian a datapad with information she'll need to know as her Assistant.

After that, she follows me into the bedroom and closes the door, flopping on the bed with a sigh. "Well, that was relaxing." She snarks sarcastically.

I flop down next to her, laying my arm around her. "Shit just seems to follow me, it seems."

Tevos stares into my eyes, and then opens her omni-tool. "Hey, Sari? Yeah, it's Tevos. Can you handle another day? You can? Thanks, bye."

She close the omni-tool and rolls over on top of me, pushing my arm away, pressing her lips onto mine. "We should make up for lost time." Tevos suggests, panting as we break away minutes later.

"Yes," I say, stroking her cheek. "Let's."

…

**A/N: Another chapter done. The last two chapters have been kind of a character development arc for Tevos, who you never really find out about in the games besides her being an Asari and the Asari Councilor.**

**To Michelangelo: Pfft. If I had a real lightsaber, fuck, no one would be pry that baby away from me. Besides, which is more important: credits or a badass weapon no one else had? Mono-molecular blades are cool and all, but it's a fucking lightsaber. Lightsaber always wins.**

**On new powers: I'm kind surprised I don't see more of the ME powers being changed in other fictions, considering that once you know the science behind it, it's really easy to modify and change. And yes, I am using science to give my guy superpowers. Superpowers others could use if they practiced enough.**

**Read, Review and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S: The next chapter brings back Garrus, for some 'Heart-to-Heart'.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	15. An Action Packed Day Full of Explosions

Staring at the Quarian sleeping on the couch, my first thought is 'what the fuck?' followed by 'how the hell did she get in here?'

I poke Kaia's shoulder once. The girl mumbles and shifts, snoring quietly. I poke her again, and a three-fingered hand wearily slaps at me, mumbling in her native language. The next time, I actually say, "Poke." And poke her in the stomach.

Kaia giggles lightly and bats at my arm, before freezing in alarm. Her head turns, her glowing eyes locking onto me. And my naked torso.

I don't like shirts when I sleep, sue me.

She screams in fright, scrambling over the couch and hiding behind the furniture. I stand there, sipping my coffee.

Nelon rushes out of his room, holding a plastic tube threateningly. "Heard screaming, came to help…" He blinks and rubs his eyes. "Oh. It's nothing important." The doc yawns and heads back into his room. "No sex on the couch, Saul."

My eyebrows rise in confusion. "When have I ever had sex on the couch, Nelon?"

He stops, as if contemplating my question. Then he shrugs. "Probably will. Possibly with Ms. Hudson."

I blink, bemused. "I'm glad you have confidence in my ability to bed women, doc."

Nelon waves over his shoulder and the door shuts.

"So, Kaia…" I start, sipping my coffee. "If you could explain just why it is you're sleeping on my couch, that would be great…"

The Quarian squeaks. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you mad, I'll go!"

I sigh and rub the bridge of my nose, catching the arm of the fleeing Quarian. "That's not what I meant. You can stay here; I just want to know why. I thought Tevos got you an apartment?"

She nervously fidgets with her hands, kicking at the carpet. She's so damn cute it should be illegal. "Well…it's empty…" Kaia admits sheepishly, playing with the hem of her hood.

Ah, I see. "Can't sleep without other people around? It's a common symptom with Quarians just off the Flotilla." I pat her shoulder, smiling. "You can stay here, but you can't sleep on the couch. I'm a gentleman, dammit, and that means you should take my bed."

Her glowing eyes rapidly blink. "Ok…where will you sleep?"

I point to the couch behind her. "On the couch. It's not like it's not comfortable, you slept pretty hard on it."

She rubs the side of her face plate, which I know means she's blushing underneath. I settle my arm around her shoulders and lead her to the kitchen. "C'mon, I'll start a pot of Turian coffee for you and get one Nelon's dextro meal tubes."

…

It's been a month and a half since the day Kaia tried to kill us, thinking Tevos was Jona Sederis when she was disguised.

A couple of days later, Tevos announced her new assistant to the public to controversy, but that died down pretty quick. It's hard not to be scared of Tevos when she gets that blank glare and says, 'deal with it, or I'll kick you into space', except in a much more polite and politically correct tone.

A few cases had popped up, but nothing big. A drug bust a couple of weeks ago, a stalker last Thursday, and a missing watch. The watch isn't missing anymore, but I'm not giving it back to the bastard who asked us to find it. What a dick.

One thing that did stand out was an increase in quantity of black market organs being sold, without a higher number of donors. It seems familiar, but I don't know why. Garrus is really interested in it, though.

I slide a cup of coffee to Kaia with a straw sticking out of the cup, along with an orange tube with a 'warning: dextro food' label. "There you go."

Kaia mumbles a thank you and sticks the straw (emergency induction port) into a small port under her mask and starts drinking as I start on my breakfast. It's quite a lot for one person, but my biotics demand a lot of food.

As I work my way through the pile of eggs and meat, Kaia pops open her tube'o'food and gets down to it. Halfway through, her omni-tool chimes, blinking rapidly. "Oh Keelah! I'm late!"

The Quarian rushes out of the door, leaving her tube on table. Well, looks like I'm bringing her lunch.

The door opens once again, this time admitting Mary, who seems to never change her clothes, as she is still wearing the same dress that I first saw her in. "Good morning, Saul. Is there anything important that you have to do today?"

I shrug. "No, not really. Just some shopping, maybe check out the game emporium, see if the new Metal of Duty game is out, get some lunch and maybe go to the Flux for a drink."

I pass along a plate of eggs and ham and a cup of coffee to the young woman in purple and refill my mug. "So yeah, nothing important to do today. How about you?"

Mary shrugs and starts speaking, but quickly stops when some eggs goes flying out of her mouth. She swallows and starts again with a blush on her face. "I'm meeting a food critic today. They're going to evaluate my food and write a review on Citadel Gourmet. It could be my chance to draw a lot of attention to my restaurant."

I smile and rub her shoulder. "I'm sure you'll do just fine, Mary. The food I've had from your place is some of the best I've ever had."

The young is blushing staring at her plate, mumbling her thanks. "Well, I should get to the market before all the good stuff is snatched up. Good luck with the critic."

I step into my room and change into my clothes. Black jeans, my boots, a dark red shirt and my leather jacket, with Tagger hidden under it. My hair is back to having a bit of grey in it, and my face is once more be-stubbled.

The market isn't very crowded this time of day, which is perfect. The butchers are laying out the freshest cuts, the grocers have the best fruit and vegetables out for me to pick over, and the bakery is just rolling out some hot pastries.

I buy some steak, Varren and beef, along with some fish and other seafood from Kahje. You'd think the Hanar selling seafood would find it ironic, but I can't tell if he/it is or not.

The Asari behind the fruit stall knows me by sight alone, which isn't surprising considering how much fruit I eat. "Hey Saul! I just got a shipment of apples from Thessia! Two for one today!"

"Alright, I'll take twenty four, Jes. And one for the road." Asari apples have a dark green skin and blue flesh and are the best apples I've ever had. The fact that the grocer is a sweet and cute girl is really just a bonus.

Jes boxes up the apples and hands me one to munch on with a wink. "I hope that, as you bite into that delicious apple and juices burst in your mouth and runs down your chin, you think of me Saul."

I return the wink and take a bite out of the fruit, letting the juice run from the corners of my mouth. "Thinking of you already, Jes." And we share a laugh.

The next hour is spent perusing through the various venders in the area, buying some vegetables and a couple of drinks, including some soda for Nelon.

By the time I get home, it's already lunch, so I grab a tube of food for Kaia and signal a sky car.

The Presidium is crowded with people going about their business. "Hey! Stop her! Stop that thief!"

A blue blur is heading right past me, but the grey, white and black colors belong only to one person. I reach out and snatch the back of the Asari's black vest, which pulls her to a stop next to me. "Mission…what did you do this time? Did you pick pocket someone again?"

The Asari, Mission, pouts and crosses her arms childishly, looking like an embarrassed kid. "He deserved it! That Turian shoved me and didn't even apologize! He was lucky Zaalbar's getting lunch or he would have gotten his arms ripped off!"

The two C-Sec officers, a Turian with red face-paint and a human with dark skin and green eyes stopped right next to us, panting. "Dammit…Mission…this is…the third time this week!" The Turian managed to get out between harsh breaths. "We'll actually have to arrest you soon if you don't stop."

Pointing to the two officers, I give Mission the sternest look I can muster. "Give them the credit chit, Mission. Gentlemen, if you'll excuse us, I'll give her a proper scolding at home."

Mission throws my arm off and shoots me an angry glare. "What the hell is wrong with you? You're not my father!"

I heave a heavy, weary sigh and grab Mission by the shoulders, forcing her to face me. "Mission…this isn't something I wanted to say in public, but…I'm your father." A hurt look, along with tears and sadness appear on Mission's blue face. "I didn't know how to say it. I've been looking for you for so long that when I found you…I couldn't say it. I'm sorry…my daughter."

The young Asari sobs loudly and rushes forward, burying her face in my chest and sobbing as I rub her back comfortingly.

The human officer brings his hand to face as the Turian laughs. "That really would have worked if we didn't see this three times this week, Saul."

Dropping the façade, Mission and I throw our arms around each other's shoulders and grin. "It would also work if Mission wasn't 86." Which is barely in the teens for Asari.

"But seriously Mission, stop pick pocketing people, or at least stop getting caught. We will have to arrest you." The human says seriously, glaring lightly at the Asari.

"Okay…" Mission pouts and scuffs the floor with a boot.

The two officers wave and walk away, getting back to their jobs, and Mission joins me on the way to the Asari Embassy. "That crying bit was a nice touch. How'd you get the waterworks running so fast?" I ask with admiration and mirth in my voice.

The young blue girl grins. "I just imagined Big Z's breath after a big meal."

A sharp growl sounds out from behind; coming from a huge, even for his species, Krogan with heavily scarred throat.

Zaalbar used to be a member of some Krogan clan, until he was ambushed in an attempt to slaughter his clan and silence him. They succeeded, in a way. His entire clan was murdered, and the leader stabbed him in the throat, but that didn't kill him. Zaalbar managed to fight back and get away, but without being able to speak ever again, leaving him to communicate in growls and roars. He found Mission on Omega when she was just a kid as a lonely orphan and took her in, protected her and acted much a like a dad would.

Mission reached out tapped Zaalbar's elbow, as that is how tall that guy is, in jest. "Oh come off it, Big Z, you know I'm just joking."

The Krogan grumbles to himself and tears into the huge sandwich in his arms. "Well, see you later, Saul! There's trouble for us to get in! Later!" Mission says happily, walking off with the lumbering mass of armor following her.

The door to the Embassy opens for me, admitting me into a mostly empty room. I approach the secretary, who barely looks up from her terminal. "If you don't have an appointment, you can submit a request and you'll be put in a queue, thank you."

I blink and wave my hand in front of the screen. "Hey, Serra. I don't want an appointment, I just want to bring Kaia her lunch, she forgot it again."

"Oh!" The Asari looks up and smiles. "Sorry about that, I've been dealing with the bitch from Westerlund News for two hours, I thought she just came back. Go right in."

She must talking about the Khalisah chick. I sympathize. Walking up the ramp, all the way to the top, I knock on the door. Tevos is engrossed in a datapad while Kaia typing at a nearby terminal.

"Hey Kaia." The Quarian jumps at my quiet greeting. Tevos doesn't even look up from her argument over the phone. "You forgot your lunch again."

"Oh!" Kaia exclaims quietly. "Sorry about inconveniencing you again."

I shake my head and set the food on her desk. "It's not a problem for me, Kaia. Have a good say, okay?"

She nods and I slip out, back down the ramp into the office. There, asking questions to an annoyed Serra, is a woman with tan, freckled skin and black hair with a camera drone hovering beside her. "What about her assistant? How do you feel about her hiring a Quarian?"

Serra hides her twitching hands under her desk. "I'm not allowed to confirm or deny any questions at this time." She sees me and gives me a nod and wave.

Unfortunately, so does Khalisah. "Excuse me, excuse me sir! Can I ask you a few questions?"

Without even bothering to wait for my answer, she taps her omni-tool and the drone shines a bright light in my face. "Can you state your name for the camera?"

Alright, I'll humor her for bit, before I fuck her over using my mad skills. "Saul Dewitt, Private Investigator. What can I do for you?"

"I'm Khalisah Al-Jilanai, Westerlund news. Rumors have it that you visit the Asari Embassy office almost everyday, and have for the past month. Are you having in affair with someone in the office? Is that why the Councilor is calling for cooperation between species?"

I stare at her blankly. "Ma'am, it is illegal to take any drugs not medically prescribed on the Citadel."

A low red flush creeps up her neck and she moves onto the next question. "Mr. Dewitt, our viewers want to know the truth: are you involved with someone in the Asari Embassy? If so, why are you hiding it?"

The sigh that escapes my lips reveals just how much patience I'm losing to her ridiculous questions. "Alright, whatever your name is, no, I'm not having an affair with anyone in the Asari Embassy. One of my friends works here and they often forget to bring lunch, so I stop by and drop it off for them. I'm done with this."

As I turn to walk away, she shouts out something for all of the Presidium to hear. "Is it true that you're affair with the Asari Councilor?"

I freeze, pivot and turn to look at her. The smug look on her face makes me want punch her, but I hold myself back and start to laugh. "Please, this just ridiculous! Are pulling these questions out of your ass or are you seriously high? Seriously, I'm not having an affair with anyone, and if I was, it's none of your business. Councilor Tevos is a beautiful woman, I have yet to meet an Asari that wasn't at least physically attractive, but I'm not about to bring some kind of political incident about just to feel good about myself."

Her face is red as the other people in the room laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of poised and confident Councilor Tevos having an affair with a scruffy human of all people.

"Alright, why are you asking? That's all your little 'interview' has been about." I ask, seriously wanting to know why she's so damn insistent about this.

"I have footage of you meeting at the Purgatory bar!" Khalisah accuses, pointing at me.

"And just where did you acquire such footage?" I ask, barely hiding my smirk.

She stutters, obviously not having thought this part out. "I-I-"

"If you acquired this 'footage' through hacking the security systems the Purgatory, that's a felony, good for two months in jail and a hefty fine. Unless this footage is fake…and you just lied to a crowd of people…that's defaming a C-Sec officer, and still comes with a fine and possible jail time for slander of character." I'm not bothering to hide the smirk anymore. Either way, she's screwed.

Khalisah doesn't respond, she just turns tail and runs.

I sigh, rub my nose, and raise my left hand, omni-tool out with a weak Overload in place, and tag her right her fleeing back, hitting the woman with the equivalent of a tazer. "And that just made it worse." I mutter to myself, approaching the twitching woman with a pair cuffs made from tool's mini fabricator. "Hey, I need someone to come down to the Presidium. Prisoner transport. Some reporter said she had embarrassing footage of me and someone else, then ran off when I called her bluff. Yeah, _that_ reporter."

Within ten minutes, a blue sky car with lights on top drops by and two officers haul Khalisah away.

I hop into a sky car and start heading home. Maybe I'll turn on Galaxy of Fantasy and kill some people, who knows?

My omni-tool chimes with a call. "Hello, Saul Dewitt."

"_Hey Dewitt, it's Garrus. Do you have any free time?"_

"I might, let me check my schedule…" I don't do anything of the sort. "Yeah, I've got some free time, why?"

"_Just wondering if you'd like to stop by this place I'm hang at and meet this doctor friend of mine…"_

"You're just bored and want someone to talk to."

"…_yeah. Also, this lady I'm meeting is weird. She makes me feel uncomfortable being in the same room."_

Who could that be? "Alright, sure. As long as we can hit the bar later."

"_I'm game. I could use a drink after this. Here's my location."_

Upper Wards? Who's there that scares Garrus? Wait…The Med-Center? That's where Dr. Michel works. Could he be taking about her?

I arrive maybe ten minutes later, after shooting off a message to Nelon about going to the Flux tonight. Garrus is waiting outside of a door with a holo-sign with a cross on it. "Hey. I just need to talk to the Dr. inside and then we can hit the Flux, alright?"

I nod, and we enter the room. Inside is a woman, wearing scrubs, with red hair. "Hello, I'm…Garrus? Hey, it's nice to see you again."

She greets him with a warm smile. I can practically see the sweat beading on Garrus' forehead. "I was in the market yesterday and saw this Turian chocolate and…thought of you…" Her face gets red as she hands over a bar of chocolate to the Turian.

"T-thank you, Dr. Michel…" Garrus stumbles over his words.

"I said you could call me Chloe, Garrus." Dr. Michel says, fluttering her eyelashes.

Glancing between the two, I can't see the reason Garrus is so damn afraid of this woman. She's been nothing but nice and sweet to him, so why is he so scared? Weirdo.

"Dr. Michel." I break in between the nervous shaking of Garrus and the eye-staring of Dr. Michel so I can continue this damn conversation and get on with my damn life.

"Oh!" It's as if she didn't realize that I've been standing right next to Garrus since he's been here. Being a third wheel is crappy. "I didn't see you there. Are you a friend of Garrus?"

I nod and smile politely. "Yeah, we've worked together before. I believe that are meeting you now because of a case we're on that we've been having trouble with, and Garrus recommended you."

Next to me, I can see the Turian's eyes get wide and shakes his head minutely. "He did? That's sweet of you, Garrus." Dr. Michel says softly, staring at Garrus once more.

"U-uh, yeah, um…oh! There's been in increase in illegal trading of organs, and I thought that, since you deal with stuff like that, you might know more about it…" He takes out a datapad and hands it to the red-haired woman.

She scrolls through the information and shakes her head. "No, I don't see anything odd about this besides it being illegal-wait." She brings the datapad up to her face and narrows her eyes on something. "Corian Extus? He donated a two? He donated one two months ago, so he should be dead, but he came in today."

Garrus nods and taps something on his omni-tool. "Thanks for the help, Dr. Michel. We'll leave you to it."

"Oh, you're leaving?" The disappointment on her face is slightly hilarious. It's like he told her he was moving off of the Citadel. "Okay…"

He waves and we leave. Garrus wipes a hand across his forehead and sighs. "Spirits…I don't what it is about that woman, but she scares me."

I can barely choke back a laugh as we enter the Flux, the crappy music pounding through the walls. Nelon is waiting at a table with a drink in his hand, and he waves at us. I order a good-old fashion lager and sit next to the doctor, Garrus with his Turian ale.

"Garrus, there is something I need to tell you about Dr. Michel." I clap a hand on his shoulder, and try my best not to laugh as he looks to me despairing for answers. I make sure that I sound as daft as possible. "She wants your sausage, bro."

This does nothing but confuse him. "What? She wants some Turian sausage? But that might kill her."

I shake my head as Nelon chokes on his drink. "No, Garrus, she wants some of your Turian sausage."

He frowns, mandibles clicking. "…I don't make sausage!"

Alright, this is getting ridiculous. "Garrus, she wants you to pin her to a wall and ravish her, possibly have you use handcuffs and make her a bad girl." Seeing his confused look once more, I decide to end this. "She's attracted to you. She wants you and her to perform sexual intercourse. She wants you to bang her. Dr. Chloe Michel wants you to bend her over and make her your woman. Are you getting the idea?"

I've never seen a Turian blush until now, and I have to say, it's funny as hell. Added to the fact that he was drinking some of his ale and brought out a magnificent spit-take is just a bonus.

"What?!"

I can't hold I back. I laugh. "Dude, did you not see the eyes she was making at you? It was the 'take me now' look. Plus, fluttering eyelashes, gifts, subtly rubbing your arm? Aren't you a detective, Vakarian?"

The Turian groans and drops his head on the table. "Oh, spirits…"

Nelon has a fist to his mouth and is trying valiantly to not laugh. "What am I supposed to do?" Garrus moans, hands covering his fringe. "I don't even know how the human mating ritual works!"

I lean on his shoulder and throw a hand out. "There's this wonderful thing called…the Extranet, Garrus. Just be specific, or you'll end up with freaky shit."

With my hand thrown out, I can see a bunch of people in Alliance blues walk into the Flux, chatting and headed to the bar. More to the point, I can see two ladies who are at the bar all by themselves. "I'll be back, possibly."

I head over to bar and lean on the bar next to the pair. One of them has dark chocolate skin and bright blue eyes, while the other has dark hair, tanned skin and brown eyes. "Hey ladies. What are two fine Alliance officers like you doing at the bar all alone?"

The dark-skinned woman smirks at my obvious pick-up line. "Just getting a drink. How about you?"

I shrug and take a sip of my lager. "Well, I was just sitting around, drinking, and then I saw these pretty ladies sitting at the bar and thought, 'well, at least I should try.' And now here I am." I hold out a hand. "Saul Dewitt."

"Hello Mr. Dewitt, I'm Kelli Washington, and this is my friend, Sam." She jacks a thumb at her friend, who looks like she'd rather be anywhere else. "She's shy, don't worry about it."

"The least I can do is buy you a drink, Kelli. What do you want?" I ask, signaling for the bartender.

Kelli leans in, eyes sparkling. "And what is the most you _can_ do, Saul?"

I smile roguishly at her. "How about we start with a drink and see where it goes from there?"

She orders her drink and holds her glass up. "To a fun night."

I clink mine against hers and wink. "To good company."

As we drink our alcohol down, I can just tell this is going to be a fun night.

…

**Yoink.**

**A/N: And there you go, another chapter done.**

**Hope you enjoyed it, more action in the next chapter.**

**Read, Review and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S.: the chapter after next involves the mysterious woman named 'Elizabeth'…who is not Miranda.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	16. Heart to Heart With Doctor Heart

As I wake up, I kept my eyes closed, to savor the feeling of smooth skin on my body. Given just how much contact there is, plus the absence of any sort cloth on the back I'm rubbing, and the rather airy feeling around my crotch, I'd say that I'm completely naked, and so is she.

Nice.

What happened last night? I can't seem to recall much, but maybe if I focus…

…

My glass slams onto the bar, just a second before Kelli's does. "And I win again. That's three in a row, 'Private' Kelli!" I crow to the chocolate-skinned woman next to me.

She sighs and pinches her nose. "Dammit, Saul, how can you chug so fast? It's unfair!"

I laugh and wave to the bartender for another round. "You haven't had a Krogan challenge you to a drinking contest yet. They can really put the alcohol away."

Sitting at the table next to us Sam, trying to shrink into her seat and drinking quietly heavily from her bottle. She's not doing a very good job though; the top of the bottle keeps missing her mouth, spilling the drink down her front. The young woman finally gives in and slumps onto the table, her snores lost in the music.

I nudge Kelli's side and point at her friend. "Your friend passed out! Do you want to get out of here?"

She turns her bright blue eyes on me unsteadily, tilting slightly in her seat as if we're on a boat. "Why, Mr. S-Saul, are you trying to seduce me?"

I grin and nod. "Why yes, yes I am. Is that a problem, Private Washington?"

Kelli smiles sultrily. "Nope! Lead on, Mr. Investigator!"

I stand, just a little off axis by the alcohol in my body, but I'm still perfectly steady. I heft the unconscious Sam into my arms, with Kelli staying steady by leaning on my shoulder, and start towards a taxi station.

When the car gets here, I slide Sam into one of the front seats and grab the other. Kelli, deciding to not bother with going in the back, plants herself right on my lap. "How drunk are you, Saul?" She asks, rubbing the stubble on my cheek.

"Not too bad. I could still drive if I didn't have a hot woman in my lap." I say with grin. "Why, how drunk are you?"

Kelli sits up a little and turns my head to face her. "Drunk enough to do this and know I won't regret it in the morning." She leans forward clamps her lips over mine, her tongue pushing into my mouth and tangling with my own. I can taste the alcohol on her breath and her tongue.

The car stops in front of my office. Kelli slides out and leans against the car while I go around and pick Sam back up. The dark-skinned woman leans rather heavily on my shoulder, trying to step straight and not trip both of us up.

The trip up the stairs is interesting, partly because of Sam's weight trying to push me down, but also Kelli, who is using my waist to support herself. I push her down on the couch and set Sam down on the armchair, and retrieve some blankets and pillows for sleeping.

I cover the unconscious woman with a blanket and stuff a pillow under her head, while dropping the others at one end of the couch. Before I can even sit, Kelli is one me, pushing me down on the couch and pulling my shirt over my head. As the cloth obstruction is removed, she sits back and nearly tears her shirt away, showing me her smooth chocolate stomach and nicely sized breasts, along with the Alliance standard-issue sports-bra, which is grey and not all that flattering, which is kind of the point.

I quickly unsnap that bitch and toss it aside so that we're both bare-chested, and I lean forward to meet her aggressive kiss with my own.

As we make out, I start kicking my pants off and my underwear, and I can feel her hands doing to same to her own lower garments.

The door slides open, and we freeze as the slender figure of Kaia stumbles into the room, walks right past us, into my room and flops down on my bed. We share a confused glance, before we get right back into it.

…

My eyes finally open, and I am once again glad that I don't get hangovers. Looking down, I can see Kelli lying on my chest, dark hair splayed over my pectorals, her dark hand standing out against the tanned skin of my chest. The stickiness around my crotch tells me that Nelon would probably be angry with me, as I had gone and done what he had told me not to: had sex on the couch.

Tilting my head back, I can see Sam curled up on the armchair, pillow clutched tightly against her face with a little bit of drool escaping her partially-opened mouth. She's really cute like this. It's too bad she's a lesbian.

I manage to substitute myself with my pillow, allowing Kelli to remain undisturbed and myself to take a shower. As I head to the bathroom, dangling freely, the door opens. Kaia exits, having just put on her mask and freezes, seeing me standing in front of her wearing not a stitch of clothing.

She makes an odd sound that seems to be some kind of combination of a squeak and a gasp, covers her eyes and darts back into my bedroom.

Whoops.

I shrug. I'll apologize to her later.

I take a shower, washing the nights' exertions away; dress myself and start making some food for the people in the house. Kaia is already down here, with a tube of food in the port. She looks down, not willing to meet my eyes.

"Hey, Kaia. Sorry about the free show. I didn't think anyone else was awake." I apologize, looking appropriately contrite.

"…it's okay…" I barely hear her mumble.

"Still…I'm sorry if I embarrassed you at all." I reach out and pat her on the shoulder as she nods. "Let me make it up to you: I'll take you out to a dextro restaurant and a movie. Have you ever seen 'Fleet and Flotilla'?"

The Quarian's head shot up so fast I'm kind of afraid she have whiplash. "That's my favorite movie ever!" She says loudly, clapping her hands and bouncing. Just a quickly, Kaia claps her hands over her face and tries to hide. "Sorry!"

I can't help it; I laugh. It's funny and sad at the same time for Kaia to think that acting her age is a bad thing. "Alright, that just confirms it. Tonight, I take you out. Beg off work early meet me here at six, okay?"

The shy girl nods and grabs her lunch, running out of the door with a quick, "Bye!"

"Oh, my bloody head…" A soft voice with an English accent says from the stairs. Turning, I spy Sam, holding her head and stumbling into the kitchen, eyes tightly shut.

"Morning, princess!" I say cheerily.

Sam jumps in fright, and then quickly cradles her head, as the sudden fright and jump made her hangover worse. "Oh, god. Please don't scare me like that, strange man."

I quirk an eyebrow at this. Strange man? "I'm Saul Dewitt. We met last night at the Flux."

Watching the blood drain from her face is funnier than I thought it'd be. "Oh…we didn't…we didn't…'do' anything last night…did we?"

I adopted a sad look. "You really don't remember, Sammy? You said it was the best you've ever had! You said you loved me!"

Her eyes go wide and she can now pass for a ghost. "I-I'm sorry…Saul, but I'm…I'm-"

"Not interested in men?" I cut across, dropping the sad look. "I know."

A shocked look passes over Sam's face, until her eyes narrow in realization. "You dirty bastard!" She exclaims, pointing at me accusingly. "You tricked me!"

I shrug and give her a smile. "Consider it payback for making me carry you here. Do you like French Toast?"

"I-you-you…" Sam sighs in defeat. "Yes…"

…

That morning was fun. I got to make Sam blush with innuendo, and Kelli joined in eventually, once she woke up, showered and got dressed.

After breakfast, I received two Extranet addresses, one from Kelli and the other from Sam. Kelli sent me message saying she would 'look me up' when she had shore leave, which meant I was pretty much a booty-call.

I'm perfectly fine with that.

It turns out that I already knew Sam. She was one of my online friends on Galaxy of Fantasy, a Human Tech-Master known as MasterTraynor. She spied my account and recognized my name, and now I have someone to 'bro-out' with online.

That night, I took Kaia out to dinner. The way we sat was kind of weird, but it was nice to learn more about the Quarian girl. She had a sealed room that would let her take off her mask and eat without having to worry about getting sick. I also got to see what a Quarian looks like under their masks, and I have to say, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting.

Her eyes glowed only a little bit, and she had violet skin, and that was really the difference between her and a human girl. There were some differences, of course, such the glowing eyes, the violet skin and white hair, but otherwise…

Afterwards, we went to a cinema showing 'Fleet and Flotilla'. It's a little sappy for my tastes, but still a good movie.

At the end of the night, I walked her to my bedroom and hugged her. She seemed kind of twitchy, but she leaned in and pressed our foreheads together, enough that I could feel the heat from her body on the other side of the mask. She ran into my room in embarrassment, and I didn't know why until I looked it up on the Extranet.

Apparently, pressing the foreheads together is the Quarian equivalent of kissing someone's cheek, with the intensity and length of the contact time meaning more intimate actions, such as an actual kiss.

The next couple of days were spent with Garrus, Nelon and I tracking down 'donors', people who donated vital organs without actually being dead.

They all refused to say a thing, and it got to the point that I decided to ask the duct-rats for help.

…

"Hey, Tone. How's tricks?" I ask, approaching a small, dirty kid with a slightly greasy grin.

"Jus' fine, Dewitt. Wha'chu want?" He says, rubbing at patch of grease on his clothes.

"Have you heard anything about black market organs?" I don't bother to dumb the language down. Despite his greasy appearance and funny accent, Tone is sharp as a knife and smarter than your average information broker.

"Gon' cot's you the usal', Dewitt." Tone smirks, rubbing his fingers together.

I roll my eyes and hand over his usual price, a chocolate bar with credit chit worth a hundred credits inside the wrapper.

He stows the goods away and looks around, making sure no one is listening in. "A'righ. You din heared this fro' me, but some guys been talkin' 'bout some guy called 'Sale on' about getting organs for cheap. He don' hire no guys le-gall-e, he picks up home'ess chumps and pays 'em crap fo' to kee' quie."

I nod, the guy behind this suddenly rushing to the forefront of my mind. Dr. Saleon. Garrus' personal mission in ME, about a Salarian who grew organs inside of people and sold them on the black market. The downside was, if the organs were faulty, he left them inside of people. "You know anything else, Tone?"

He shakes his head and sticks his hand in his pockets. "Nope! Tha's all I know."

I toss him a credit chit and start back to where Garrus and Nelon are waiting for me. "You're a regular Shadow Broker, Tone."

Tone thumbs his nose and winks. "That's my dream!"

Garrus gains a pensive expression after I present him with the information. "That explains why the donors won't talk, this might be their only way to get money. Still, 'Sale on'? Sounds like a Salarian. No offense, doctor."

Nelon shakes his head. "None taken. Actually, I was thinking the same thing. I've heard about a Dr. Saleon on the Wards. Runs a clinic on Tayseri Ward. Bears investigating."

I nod in agreement, plans already streaming through my mind. "True enough. Let's go meet this Saleon, see what he knows."

We're in agreement, so Nelon calls a sky-car and we set off to Tayseri Ward.

…

Dr. Saleon looks gaunt and creepy, even for a Salarian, who are generally very thin. "No, all of business is completely legal. All of my donors are paid, of course, or their families are. There's no stealing going here."

I'm kind of debating just capping this bastard here and now, but that would only cause me undue trouble. I know I can turn this situation to my advantage, I just have to wait.

"Alright, thank you for answering or questions, doctor." Garrus nods to the man and motions for us to follow him outside. "He's definitely hiding something."

"Indeed. He twitched every time you brought up donors and the black market." Nelon says in agreement. "However, we need more information. Can't arrest him on suspicion alone. Need proof."

I grab both aliens by the shoulders and drag them into a nearby alley. "Look," I whisper, pointing down the street after they gave me confused looks. "Isn't that Corian Extus?"

It is, in fact, Corian Extus. The missing left mandible is very eye-catching. "It is. How about we have 'chat' with him?" Garrus suggests, cracking his knuckles.

The other Turian is very surprised when Garrus drops a hand on his shoulder and squeezes threateningly. "Hey there, Corian. Let's talk about the good doctor."

…

"I swear, I don't know anything!" The Turian shouts, yanking at the cuffs locking him to the table.

"You donated three livers, Corian! It's not physically possible for a Turian to survive having three livers, let alone donating them!" Garrus yells, pointing a talon in the other's face.

"It-it's a family condition!" Corian says desperately. "I didn't want to say anything about it!"

"Bullshit!" The blue-painted Turian roars, grabbing the other Turian around the neck. "We looked into your files, Corian, we know you only had two livers! What is Saleon doing? How is he getting the organs? Where is he getting them from?"

Corian is sweating, eyes darting desperately around the room, looking for an escape. "This is police brutality! You can't do this to me!"

Garrus pulls him up until their noses are practically touching. "You haven't seen me get brutal, Corian. I assure you, it is much, much worse."

Corian looks like he's about to explode. His eyes roll up into his head, and blue blood starts to seep out of his mouth. I reach forward and open the intercom. "Garrus, his vitals are going haywire! We're coming in!"

Nelon and I rush through the door, ready to treat Corian. Garrus sets him on the table after unlocking his handcuffs and rips open his shirt. "Spirits…"

I already know what I'll see, but I have to look. It's just as disgusting as I thought it would be.

Covering the Turian's chest is a maze of scars and incisions, some still bleeding. Along with that are a bunch of spots that are pulsing sickly.

"He's growing the organs inside of them and harvesting them!" I exclaim, not even having to pretend to sound sickened.

"We're gonna take this bastard down." Garrus says firmly, tapping a request for a medical team. "Let's get to his clinic. That bastard has a lot to answer for."

This is my time to make a change. "Wait! Saleon has a ship registered under his name at Dock fifty-seven. I'll go to his office, you guys check his ship. If he's at the clinic, I'll radio you."

The Turian stares at me searchingly. "…Alright, we'll do it your way. But you will call us if he's there, right?"

I nod once. "Of course. Let's move!"

We sprint from the building, Garrus and Nelon jumping in one car and I in another. I set of toward Teysari Ward with lights blaring and engine whining. I already know what I'm going to find, but I should make sure.

As I pull-up near the clinic, I find that my suspicions were correct: the sign is off and there are no lights on within the building. "Garrus, Saleon bolted! I'm heading to the docks!"

His voice comes back over the line accompanied by a harsh wail. _"Nelon and I are on Saleon's car right now! He's running for his ship!"_

I don't bother to reply, I just slam my foot on the gas and scream toward the docks. The sirens blare and engine starts to scream as I push the car to the limit.

Coming to the docks, I see Garrus, Nelon and four other C-Sec officers using cars as cover while Saleon fires at them from behind his own with a submachine gun.

I tilt the car down, intent on smearing this bastard across my windshield like the bug he is…when the engine has had enough of my shit and dies.

"Oh, shit!" The car starts to fall, tilted straight at the ground. I can feel the blood rushing in my veins as I frantically try to start the car once more. "Come on, come on!"

Giving up, I start kicking the car where the engine is, to great success. The engine roars back to life, just in time for me to pull up.

Instead of slamming straight down into the ground, I manage to bounce off of the floor and skid across the hangar.

Taking the distraction, Saleon throws a flash grenade and makes a break for it when the C-Sec officers take cover.

Kicking out the door, I pull Bagger from the holster and open fire at the doctor as he runs. I barely miss, and the door to his ship slides open, showing several dirty people inside huddled with each other in fear.

The clamps of the dock clunk and screech as they lock onto the ship and bite into the metal. The ships not going anywhere, and he knows it.

He grabs a human woman with blonde hair and holds her in front of him, with his back to the ship. "Stay back! Stay back or I kill her!"

The other officers move up beside me, weapons drawn. "Put the woman down, Saleon!" Garrus shouts, pistol trained on the Salarian's face. "You've got nowhere to run!"

As he and Saleon talk, I nudge the Asari officer next to me. "Can you use Pull?"

She nods once. "Yeah, why?"

"When I give the signal use it and pull the woman out of the way." I say, eyes trained on the gun in Saleon's hands.

"What signal?" She hisses back, pulling her right hand back surreptitiously.

"This one!"

I know that model of submachine gun. I've torn it apart and put it back together so many times that I know exactly where the heat sink and the Mass Effect drive is inside of it.

I aim, breathing deeply, sights centered about two inches above the grip, and an inch up and away from the trigger…and fire.

The bullet rips through the gun, disabling both heat sink and drive, leaving Saleon without a working weapon.

The officer next to me throws her hand out, launching a blue disc of biotic energy that wraps around the woman and brings her toward us, where Nelon reaches out and catches her before she can hit the ground.

Saleon has his hands up, his larges eyes flitting between the officers and the open door of his ship, openly debating on whether or not he could make the dash.

Garrus moves forward to cuff him, but he reaches into his scrubs and pulls out a familiar disc.

A grenade.

"You'll never take-" He begins to yell, but is cut off by Garrus mid-sentence.

"Grenade!"

Every officer opens fire, riddling the Salarian with hundreds of bullets in seconds, pouring so much fire down at him that his top half and legs are separated by a mass of pulped and riddled flesh.

The grenade tumbles to the ground, inert and inactive.

Dr. Saleon is done.

…

"What the hell were you thinking?" Executor Pallin shouts at us, spittle flying from his mouth. "You could have killed the hostage, not to mention all of the people inside the ship if that grenade had gone off!"

"And what would you have preferred us to do, Executor?" I retort, not afraid of this shouting Turian. "Would you have let him get in his ship and fly away? We did what we had to do to end the threat before he could cause more pain."

"And you broke so many C-Sec regulations that you should be thrown in prison!" He shouts back, waving a talon angrily.

Well, I've had enough of this clown. "Executor, I know that I technically 'work' for you, but I could care less at this point. So, I must respectfully decline to listen to any more of your shit, and ask that you kiss my ass. Good-bye."

I turn and march out, followed by Nelon and Garrus. I can hear him bluster before the door closes. I turn to Garrus and hold out my hand. "It was nice to work with you again, Vakarian. It's always so exciting to be on a case with you." I say sarcastically.

He gives me the equivalent of a grin and shakes my hand and then Nelon's. "Funny, every time I call you up to work on something together, suddenly things start to explode. That doesn't happen to me regularly."

I nod and chuckle. "True, true. Hey, now that this is over, want to hit the Flux for a drink? I can invite 'Chloe'…"

He pales and blushes within the same minute. "Uh…no, that's fine, no need to bother her."

I smile cheerfully. "Too late! She's already waiting for us at the bar!"

I skip off, feeling good about myself as Garrus screams, "You evil bastard!"

…

**A/N: As you can see, I'm not going to pair Garrus and Shepard together. I don't know why that seems to be the 'thing' with Self-inserts, either that or Kaidan, which I don't understand doubly as much.**

**No, Garrus gets his doctor, and Kaidan…well, we'll just have to see, huh? Hehehe…**

**Anyway, next chapter starts off a new arc.**

**Read, Review, and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S.: You can't change my mind about Kaidan and Garrus, so don't bother. When I played a fem!Shep, I went with Liara in the first, Kelly in the second, and then Liara and Traynor in the third. I'm just sexist…no, Sexy-ist, that way.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	17. We're Off to See the Queen

The café looks over the Presidium, giving a very nice, open view of the river and the inhabitants below me. The hum of the sky-cars is negligible at this distance, so there is some measure of peace to be had.

The stream of fragrant smoke that escapes my mouth drifts up and disperses into a little cloud that quickly vanishes in the breeze. These smart, healthy cigarettes are very smooth and have a very clean, fresh taste. It's not as if I smoke all the time, just once in awhile when I have some time to think. After what happened a month ago, Pallin basically blacklisted me and Nelon for having the gall to tell that overstuffed vulture to kiss my ass.

It wasn't all bad, though. Nelon basically stole Saleon's clinic, along with his 'Research Funding', equipment and customer base, basically turning the clinic into a free med-center. Tevos made it obvious that she supported his efforts with affordable healthcare, and a good few politicians looking to make themselves look charitable sank quiet the sum of credits into it.

The downside is that there are very few cases for me to go on, though I do help Garrus on occasion. The upside is that I now have more free time.

The downside is that I now have more free time that I don't know what to do with.

"Hey, do you have one to spare?" The voice is soft and husky, but strong and noticeably feminine.

My hand slips into my pocket and retrieves the pack, offering it to the woman next to me. Her lips are red like rubies and look to be soft as silk as they clasp the butt in her mouth. The flame that jumps from my lighter throws her face into sharp relief and it's quite a sight. It's heart-shaped and smooth, with pale, nearly porcelain skin. Her hair is a very dark, rich brown that seems to be almost black, and her eyes are like deep sapphires that stare into my soul.

Her dress is stylish but not revealing, bucking the current trend of showing at least a little cleavage, but it's snug and looks very good on her. The bird choker around her throat must be an antique; I've never seen anything like it in this time.

"What would you say if I told you 'I want to hire you for a job'?" She asks, the curls of smoke escaping her lips framing her face and giving it an almost ethereal glow.

"I'd ask, 'What sort of job'?" I reply, taking another drag.

"The job where you save the life of an innocent and gain something very valuable in return." She says, her face only barely shifting.

"Well, then I'd say, 'why me?'"

Her gaze narrows on me, and I feel a tingle creeping up my spine. "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world, mister…?"

"Dewitt. Saul Dewitt." I turn and push my hand out, my fingers slightly curled.

She smiles, if only slightly, and slides her hand into mine. "Mr. Dewitt. I'm looking for a girl. A very important girl. And I need your help to find her. The last I heard, she was on Omega." Her grip is firm, but her hands are soft but calloused. The calloused hand of a lady familiar with a gun.

Omega. Looks like it's time to pay the Queen of Omega a visit. "You can call me Saul."

"You can call me Elizabeth."

Somehow, that name is not surprising. Not after what I've been through. "Well, if we're going to Omega, we'll need some gear. The guns I have are good, but the armor is won't be sufficient in that kind of environment. What do you have?"

She shrugs and takes a drag. "I have enough credits to get what we need, but I'll let you pick. You have more experience, it seems."

I nod in agreement. "Omega's a dangerous place; you need to either look dangerous enough that people avoid you or poor enough so that they wouldn't bother to rob you."

Her eyes widen marginally. "It's that bad?"

"Mostly. The Vorcha would kill someone if they're hungry. Ergo, the dangerous route. Follow me." I reply, stubbing out my cigarette and tossing the remains in the trash. "I know a guy who'll give us a good price."

…

Two hours later, I'm all packed and ready to go. All I need to do now is say goodbye. Nelon is first on the list.

His clinic is booming, figuratively, with business. Although most of the clients are poor or homeless and therefore don't have a lot money, people donate.

"Hey, doc." I greet, waving at the red-skinned Salarian as he sits in his office with a datapad and a cup of tea.

"Saul!" He sets the tea and the pad down and hops up, hand out for a shake. "It's been awhile, my friend. How are things?"

"It's alright. I just got a case that's taking me out to Omega, so I won't be around for awhile." I say, shaking his hand.

He nods in realization. "I see. Couldn't stand to be away from action. I wish you well, Saul. Omega's a dangerous place, but I have faith in your ability to stay alive. I'll be here if you need me, and you have my address."

It's short and to the point, and I appreciate at that. We share a nod of respect, and Elizabeth and I head to the Presidium. "I just have to say goodbye to one more person before we can leave. The Falcon's already in standby, so we can go immediately."

We settle into a comfortable silence as I drive us to the Asari Embassy. Serra waves us in quickly, already busy with work on her terminal. Kaia is hard at work, reading through notes and important documents dealing with situations on the Citadel. She looks up as we enter the room. "Saul, hi! I didn't forget my lunch today. Did you just want to visit?"

I shrug, kind of dreading what I'm going to say. "Eh, kind of. I'm actually leaving on a case out of system. I won't be around for a couple of weeks."

Behind her visor, Kaia's eyes widen in what I recognize as shock. "What?!"

I can see Tevos react with surprise as well, but her expression is quickly schooled into interested coolness.

Kaia jumps up from her seat and rushes around the desk, slamming into my chest and wrapping her arms around me. I return the hug, rubbing her back as she cries. "Hey, don't worry. I'll be back at some point. I'll call you every couple of days, alright?"

She steps back a little and grabs my face, pulling it down so she can stare into my eyes. "Promise?" The question, while slightly pleading, also carried the threat of harm if I didn't follow through. Kaia is usually sweet and shy, but apparently can be scary too.

"I promise."

"Good." Kaia says firmly, pulling me down to touch our foreheads together for a second and one last hug.

Over her shoulder I share a small nod with Tevos, which is really all I can do with the cameras in the building.

Giving Kaia one last hug, we depart for the docks. "You don't have many human friends, do you?" Elizabeth asks, her gaze searching.

I shrug and turn the car into the docks. "No, not really. Nothing against other humans, I just haven't really met many." Turning my eyes to her, I ask, "How about you?"

She shakes her head, dark waves shimmering in the light. "You don't make many friends in my line of work. Acquaintances and enemies, but not friends."

I set the car down outside of the dock and let it power down. I grab my pair of duffel bags and Elizabeth grabs hers, taking them into the building and onto a lift. "So, what is your line of work?"

The woman turns her deep blue eyes on me and gazes into mine. "…Acquisition and Repossession, in a manner. I'll tell you more when we're on our way to Omega."

"Fair enough."

The lift takes another three minutes to get down to the docks. As the door slides down, my ship is revealed to me and the woman with me.

The whole ship is shaped somewhat like a V, much like Turian ships, though the front and the wings are blunted and curved, reminiscent of Asari ships. There are two wings on each side, with three thrusters under each wing, which fold up for transit between Mass Relays and for speed, and unfold for maneuverability.

The ship's hull is colored a dark black, with a strip of white running along the underbelly and two streaks of bold crimson running across the sides.

The guns aren't all that big, or at least, they weren't….

Until Garrus modified them.

As in, right now.

"Garrus! What are you doing?" I call to the Turian, who's poring over something on his omni-tool.

He looks up, visor flashing. "Ah, hey Saul. I meant this to be a surprise, but when I found out you were leaving, I needed finish quickly, so…Surprise, I guess."

My baby has new set of teeth. More like fangs, actually. "What are they?" I ask, pointing at the four barrels sticking out of the front and the vaguely cannon-like protrusion on the belly.

"Oh, these?" He replies, a fake look of surprise on his face, patting the cannons. "I call them 'Mass Accelerator Cannons'. See, instead of just the traditional metal slugs most guns use these days, I added a laser emitter from a GARDIAN Laser Array. The Laser Array super-heats the slug, and the Mass Accelerator shoots it off. If it hits a ship's shields, the splatter from the hot metal drains more from it before being pushed away. It can also weaken armor, setting up a finishing shot from that." He pointed at the cannon underneath. "That's a Calliope Torpedo Launcher. It's not as big as what you'd find on a frigate, as I had to shave it down a bit to fit it on your bird, but it should do the job. What do you think?"

I stare at the man until he starts to fidget. "I wish you were a woman, because than I'd kiss you. As it is, I'm just going to say thank you. How much did this cost?"

Garrus smiles, mandibles twitching. "The Patent on the MAC will more than cover the cost. And I don't think Chloe would like it if you stole a kiss from these sweet mandibles."

I quirk an eyebrow at the Turian and smirk. "It's 'Chloe' now, is it?"

He blushes and scratches at the back of his neck. "Well, after talking to her about it, we decided…to…try it out. I don't really know how to treat a human, but…we're going to find out together."

I clap him on the shoulder and shake his hand. "I wish you the best of luck, Garrus. Just don't spend too much time 'calibrating'."

Garrus blinks in bemusement but returns the shake all the same. "And good luck to you too." He starts for the lift, nodding to Elizabeth as he went.

I wave an arm over my ship like a presenter. "This the _Ardat_, my ship. Means 'Demon' in Asari. The name is more appropriate now with the new guns, now that I think about it. Come on in."

I enter the ship, tossing my bags on the bed and sitting in the cockpit. Elizabeth sets her gear on the floor and takes a seat on the bed, watching as I start the pull-away sequence.

The docking clamps disengage with a thunk, and the engines kick in. I pull us out and away from the dock and spin the ship around, taking off for the Mass Relay. As we approach the giant satellite, I send in coordinates and bring us in for transit.

A bolt of light lances out of the giant Eezo core latches onto the _Ardat_, suffusing the entire vessel in a shroud of blue light. A sharp jerk is felt as it launches us across the galaxy, and we're gone from the Widow system, gone from the Citadel and gone from my friends.

…

"Alright, it'll take about eight or so hours until we reach the Sahrabarik system and Omega, so why don't we take this time to get to know each other?" I say, spinning the chair around to face Elizabeth.

The strange but beautiful woman sits back on the bed, staring at me. If she is who I think she is, then there is some high-level shit going on that I am not privy to, and that is somewhat concerning. "Alright. What do you want to know?"

I shrug and make myself comfortable. "Anything, really. Do you have family? Where are you from?"

I can see Elizabeth wince very slightly at my questions; in fact, if I wasn't looking for signs like that, I doubt I could have spotted them. "I used to have family, but not anymore. I'm from Earth."

I'm tempted to ask 'which one?', but I hold it back as she turns to me. "What about you?"

"I don't have a family either. Used to, but not so much now. They're dead." I reply blandly.

She blinks once, slowly. "I see. And what about a home?"

"Nope." I say, scratching at my face. "Not anymore. Since I took your case, the _Ardat _is my home now. I used to share an apartment with Nelon and Kaia."

"Oh."

The awkward silence fills the room, pressing down uncomfortably. I have to say something, or I'll go crazy. "So, what is the job? You said you would explain it more once we were off the Citadel."

Elizabeth sits up and opens her omni-tool. "Right. A high-level Asari diplomat recently had a child, which has been kidnapped. Our job is to track down, recover and bring the baby back to her mom. So far, all we have is an email asking for money and threatening harm on the baby if the demands are not met. I managed to trace the email back to Omega, so that's why we're heading there."

I hum lightly, tapping my fingers on the arm rest. "Who's the diplomat?"

"She wishes to remain anonymous." She replies shortly.

"Alright." I sit up, opening my omni-tool. "I have a friend on Omega who might be able to help us with this. I'll email her and see what I can do."

Elizabeth nods and then looks at me curiously. "Who is your friend?"

I smile at her mysteriously. "Omega. Never will you find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. But, if you're going to have friends on the inside of the hive, would you rather have a worker or the Queen?"

…

After taking a nap, getting the grey out of my hair and cutting said hair shorter, along with preparing our weapons and gear, we finally arrive in the Sahrabarik system with a shudder as the Mass Effect Field dies out.

Looking out the view port, I can see the red shine from the Omega-4 relay in the distance. The light shining out of it is a baleful, orange-red that just screams 'dangerous', and makes me wonder just what the hell thousands of people were smoking when they decided to jump through that bastard and find out what was on the other side.

That also brings to mind the fact that, if I do what I need to do and join Shepard's crew, I'll be one of those idiots jumping into the Galactic Core in three year's time. If I survive the events coming in a little more than a year.

Yeesh.

The _Ardat_ shudders as the docking clamps latch on and anchor the ship in place. As the airlock begins to cycle, I set the last part of my intimidation gear on my face and strap Medusa to my back.

"Do we really have to dress like this?" Elizabeth asks, her voice muffled a little bit, carrying a slightly electronic tone.

"Yup," I respond, cleaning the lenses of my HUD-glasses and glancing at her. My voice is muffled just a bit as well with a synthetic quality to it. "Omega is lawless. That means if someone wants to kill you, they will, unless you're working for someone important…or, you scare the shit out of them. Hence, our clothes."

The woman next to me sets on her own set of HUD-glasses, staring at me. It's just a little creepy. "…you have odd eyes. Did you know that?" She asks suddenly.

"I haven't met anyone with an eye color like mine, if that's what you mean. As far as I know, I'm the only one with eyes like this." Which is true. I've never met anyone with eyes like mine, but that could change at any time. Not that I'm into just randomly staring deeply into random people's eyes to see the color.

"The blue and the yellow…it reminds me of a young star moving into the next stage." Elizabeth says quietly, staring into my eyes.

Alright, this is weird. I put my sunglasses on to break the moment just as the doors open. We stride out onto Omega, walking in step.

As we walk, the people near us whisper and the ones in front part and make room. I knew our clothes would make a difference.

So, what I'm wearing is this: it's a set of maybe medium-quality medium armor with a pretty good shield plus my biotic barrier, painted black with red stripes going up the legs and across the chest. The red is deep, but bright enough that it gets attention, bringing to mind violence and blood, perfect for intimidation. Added to that is a breathing mask covering my face from the top of my nose down with red lights on it. My HUD-glasses, plus the long coat over the armor give me an air of threatening mysteriousness, which is just perfect for Omega. The assault rifle on my back and the shotgun with it promise violence, and my trusty lightsaber is strapped to my left wrist in case I need to fast draw. The sleeves of the coat are also long and wide enough that I can slip my hands into them when standing around idly.

Elizabeth is wearing practically the same thing, but changed slightly for her womanly proportions and body. She carries an assault rifles on her back as well as a submachine gun on her left hip and a heavy pistol on her right.

As we walk up to the top entrance of the Afterlife, the line falls silent, and the bouncers subtly grip their weapons.

I've adjusted the speaker on the mask, so my voice comes out raspy, like I'd taken an injury to the throat at some point. "We are here to see Aria T'Loak."

I can't really tell how the Elcor is feeling. "Polite query: what are your names?"

I point to myself. "Malgus." And then at Elizabeth. "And my compatriot, Lumiya."

Thank god no one else seems to know about Star Wars. Otherwise, this would never work.

"Resigned Surprise: I have found your names on the list. You may enter." The Elcor says slowly, checking over a datapad.

We step through the door and into the club. The dancers on the dance floor spread out when we walk near them, and that is just what I wanted.

I can see Aria looking down on us from her couch. She's smiling, and it's not a nice smile.

Then again, Omega's not a nice place. And she is the Queen.

…

**A/N: And that's the end of the 'PI' arc (for now) and the beginning of the 'Bounty Hunter' arc.**

**Alright, so two things: 1. SOPA. As far as I know, SOPA isn't actually a thing. A couple of the people involved with it are talking to some other people, and that's about it.**

**And that's all it takes to freak people right the fuck out, apparently. Sure, I signed the petition, but nothing has come up like SOPA at all.**

**And what's really annoying is all of these authors who haven't updated a story in fucking years updates their entire battery of stories just to warn people when frankly, I'd rather have another chapter.**

**Authors like NeonZangetsu and dragonuphost (maybe) are handling it the best, putting out chapters but warning people at the end. Good on you guys.**

**2****nd****: To a guest reviewer: I can't answer your damn question personally if you don't have an account, so what's the point of asking them?**

**In any case, here are my answers to your questions, and why those questions are stupid.**

"**If I had found a lightsaber, my first questions would have been the 'how's and 'why's."**

**No shit.**** That's why Saul let Nelon scan it, to see how it works and why. It was also answered the chapter after.**

"**How could something like that exist in this universe?"**

**Already answered, as I said.**

"**How could it contain such a huge and valuable Eezo crystal?"**

**In the hilt, where the focusing crystal for a lightsaber is contained, where else?**

"**Why would it contain such a huge a valuable Eezo crystal?"**

**Because the person who it was made for is fucking rich, and the beam made by it has special properties not revealed yet.**

"**Why would it be unused, not bound to a certain DNA already?"**

**Because it was in transit to the person who ordered it****. That's why it was in a box, so no one else could grab it and use it for themselves.**

"**Why would it be found in some third-rate smuggling warehouse?"**

**Where would you expect to find something inordinately expensive? In a high-class smuggling ring, right? So why would someone look for something so expensive in a crappy smuggler's den?**

**Answer: they wouldn't, that's why it was there, because no one would look for something that ridiculously pricey in a crappy little place.**

**Who it was made for and why it was made for them won't be answered until it actually advances the plot, because otherwise, the viewers would see it coming. I have the story planned out. I know what's going to happen. However, the story is presented from a first-person point of view, not an omniscient first person POV. Saul doesn't know who made it or why, hence why the viewers don't know either.**

**Saul did ask these questions to himself, who the fuck wouldn't? it just went unsaid, because I was sure people would understand that I would do something like that and they would too, so I don't need to point that out.**

**Obviously, I was wrong.**

…

**Anyway, the part about my eyes is true. They are the only three colored eyes I've seen (hah). The outside is a dark blue, lightening up towards the center, then cut off by a jagged ring of yellow, with a sky blue around the iris. No bullshit here, at all. That's my actual eye color.**

**Read, Review and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S.: The next chapter is violent, brutally violent at times, so….yay, I guess.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


	18. Do What You Gotta Do

Aria lounges on her couch, legs crossed and a smirk playing on her lips. "I've been expecting you, Malgus. I've looked over the documents you've sent me, and I think I can accommodate you. However…"

She leans forward, her eyes sharp and cold. "You have to do something for me. Every relationship has a give and receive dynamic. If you give me what I want, you'll receive what you desire. If you try to circumvent me, however, I will show you why the one rule on Omega is 'Don't fuck with Aria.' Understand?"

I nod along with Elizabeth. "I understand." I say in my raspy voice. "What is it that you want, Aria?"

The Queen of Omega smirks and sits back. "There's a group of hotshots calling themselves 'Full Moon' who seem to think that they can encroach on my territory without retaliation or even a by-your-leave."

The look on her face sends a shiver down my spine. No matter what color they are, where they're from or what species they are…women are fucking scary. "I want you to end them. In fact, I want them to be an example. I want you to go to the Full Moon's base, and kill every single one. I'll have the cameras rolling, so don't be afraid of being brutal. I'd prefer it if you are, in fact. Really impress upon them the full weight of my… displeasure."

The Queen of Omega snaps her fingers and a Turian steps up, handing a datapad to me. "You'll find the information you need there. Now, go take care of it." She nodded towards the door, clearly dismissing us.

Elizabeth and I bowed very slightly and began to head to the exit. We stayed silent the entire time, waiting until we were well and alone before speaking. "Are you alright with this, Elizabeth?" I ask softly. "If you don't want to, you don't have to. I'll deal with it."

She's silent as I hack a sky-car. We sit down, and I enter the information about Full Moon into the car and let it drive us there. "I'm no stranger to violence, Saul, but I don't enjoy it. If this is what we need to do to get what we need to find the girl…than let's do it."

"Full Moon's home base is a warehouse," I say, bringing up a hologram of said base. "There's a secondary floor near the top of the main area. Would you prefer to be on Overwatch or down on the floor with me? Aria wants us to be brutal, so I'll be using omni-blades."

"While tempting, I'll go with Overwatch." Elizabeth states dryly, patting her assault rifle. "Close quarters combat isn't really my strong point."

Yeah, she doesn't really have the 'face-punch' body-type. "Alright." The car sets down outside of the warehouse, which is unguarded. The front is painted black, with a white circle with grey spots marking it as Full Moon territory.

"Okay, I'll climb onto the roof and find an access point. I'll call you when I do. Can you give me a boost?" Elizabeth stepped back as I kneeled and laced my fingers together. She sprinted towards me, jumping and planting her left foot on my hands. I pushed up, boosting her over my head and onto the side of the warehouse.

I watched as she shimmied up the side, her jacket flapping before I lost sight of her on the roof. As I waited, I hacked into the cameras inside the warehouse. I found another presence, which let me into the system without problems. Must be Aria. Looking on the members of Full Moon, and I can easily say that these guys and gals are both stupid and arrogant. Not one of them has a weapon nearby, not even a knife. Their guns are all scattered around the room, far out of reach. Most of them seem to be drunk, and a good many are playing what looks like poker.

Omega is lawless, that much is true. However, that doesn't mean anyone can come in and start killing and stealing without some sort a consequence. Which is exactly what these idiots did.

Killing every member of Full Moon wouldn't just be a favor to the galaxy, it's practically natural selection.

My comm. clicked, and Elizabeth's naturally husky voice came over the line. _"I'm inside the building. No guards, no patrols and no one watching the cameras. These fools are just asking for something bad to happen."_

"Locations?"

"_Three in a group, drinking. One, taking a smoke break near the front door. Six playing poker in the center of the room. Another playing a game on his omni-tool. And another just came out of the bathroom. Twelve in total."_

Alright, plan time. The group of three can be scattered and potentially taken out of the fight entirely with a well-placed warp to one in the center, with the detonation from my explosive biotics being the main factor there.

The one taking the smoke break can be killed first…but how? I'll need to do something shocking, maybe throw him through something, shock the rest and set them off balance. I'll figure that out when I go in.

The six playing poker present the largest problem. I can throw the smoker and catch them off guard, throw a warp at the drinkers, and then charge into the six. I should focus the force outward as opposed to forward, to knock them off balance. The gamer would join in along with the guy from the bathroom, so if I get surrounded, I may have to use…_that_.

"Alright, I have a plan of engagement. If any of them go for the guns, take them out, please." I relay my plans to Elizabeth, and approach the front door.

It's not even locked. These guys are just asking for a beating. Too bad it'll be their last.

The door hisses open, and the first victim is revealed. He's not very tall, or very short, about average. His eyes are bloodshot, and the joint he's sucking on is producing red smoke. Probably weed mixed with red sand.

"Hey!" He barks, blowing red smoke from his mouth. "This Full Moon territory, get the fuck out!"

I don't say anything, I just keep walking toward him. He hops off the crate he's using as a chair and brings his right hand up, a blue glow surrounding it. "You don't back off, I'll fuck you up!" When I don't respond, just keep walking. "Your funeral, pal!" He shouts, throwing his fist forward.

My left hand comes up, catching the fist and dispelling his biotics with a small burst of my own. I tighten my grip, hearing the bones in his hand crack under the pressure, bending his arm to the side painfully. I draw my right hand back, covering it with biotics and unleash a punch into his chest.

A burst of blue lights in front of me, throwing him back, through the wall of crates. He skids across the ground, groaning, but still alive.

Now, that just won't do.

I pull a crate into the air, placing it over him and letting it go. He screams once before it smashes him into the floor like a rotten fruit.

Meanwhile, his compatriots haven't moved, staring at me in shock.

No time to waste, then. I dash forward, hurling a chaotic ball of energy into the center of the drinkers, right at the man in the middle. It explodes, throwing the other two away, aflame with biotic energies.

I focus on the poker table, and more specifically, the two immediately in my direction. I pull back on my body and charge forward, focusing on directing the field around me out and around instead of forward.

The wave of force, tosses the two closest and the two on either side of them off of their feet and splinters the table into millions of pieces. I run forward, straight at one of the stumbling women, jump onto her shoulders and then up and off, back-flip and point myself straight down at her. Her ribs crack and collapse under my weight and I step off, omni-blades on both wrists activating.

The next one is a bald man. He's trying to regain his balance as I stab him in the chest with the right blade. I bring the left up and impale him on the other side, lifting him off of his feet and throwing him into a different charging member, knocking the other down.

The next runs forward, her fist cocked back and screaming. I hop from my right to my left foot and kick her left knee, bending the limb backwards. She bends, facing the ground and I slash down, removing her head and sending it spinning to the floor.

Distantly, I can hear the crack of a gun firing, seeing one of the members go down with holes in his chest and head.

The next pulls a knife and hurtles towards me, the point of the blade aiming for my head. I step forward, in range of his arms, block his swing, grapple his arm over my shoulder, pulling him over me and slamming him back-first onto the ground. Before he can do more, I stomp on his head and splatter his brain on the floor.

I dash forward, focusing biotic energy around my fist and shaping it into a point. The man has no time to react before my hand bursts through his chest, destroying his heart, lungs and a good chunk of his spine.

Elizabeth strikes again, the tight cluster of bullets ripping through the last woman's head, spraying her blood across the crate behind her.

The last member sees the carnage and kneels, begging for his life. "Please, don't kill me! I swear, I'll leave Omega forever!"

My comm. clicks, and I hear Aria's low tones in my ear. _"No mercy. Kill him."_

I stride over to him and grasp a fistful of his shirt, levering him up to face me. I draw my right hand back clench it into a fist. I throw it forward, landing four heavy punches to his face, each impact bending his neck more. The final punch hits with a crunch and a snap, and he flips, landing with his head at a crooked angle.

A large shipping crate opens, admitting a large man into the open, wearing only a tank-top and some shorts. He doesn't even get to say a word as I'm already on him, landing a punch across his face that cracks his jaw, kneeing the air from his lungs and then driving my knee into his face. When he leans back, clutching his nose, I activate the dual blades and stab them through the junction where the arms meet the shoulders, disabling both limbs.

He hits the ground, screaming, and I jump forward and stomp on both of his knees, disabling him entirely.

I bring a hand to my ear, activating my comm. "What do you want to do with this one, Aria?" I ask in my raspy 'Malgus' voice.

Her voices comes over all the speakers, broadcasting her voice directly to the camera feed. _"End him. Let this be a warning to all of those who wish to trouble the Queen of Omega! Make him into a warning! Never! Fuck! With Aria T'Loak!"_

I pull him up by the shoulders, slamming my forehead into his nose and dazing him. I hold him up with one hand, driving the other with the omni-blade activated into his gut, tearing a large gash into his insides. I push him into a wall, reaching to my belt and pulling out a disk with red lights on it. I activate the grenade and set the timer for ten seconds, before pulling my hand back and shoving it into the hole in his gut, withdrawing my hand bereft of the grenade.

Turning away, I ignore his screams, until they rise in pitch as the incendiary grenade detonates, burning him from the inside out.

I exit the warehouse, meeting up with Elizabeth. Aria contacts us, her voice full of satisfaction. _"Very good. You did what I asked and then some. I'll send my guys out and see what I can find. I'll let you know if they get anything. Saul, visit me later. We have things to discuss…in private."_

Her voice fades, and I can no longer keep it in. I run to the nearest railing, fumbling for the latches on my rebreather, barely pulling the mask aside before the vomit traveling up my throat exits.

I hurl over the side three more times, tears streaming down my face. After I'm done, I spit and wipe my mouth, before sliding down to the ground at a nearby wall, my face held in my hands. I can't stop myself from crying, and how could I?

I've killed people before…but I've never made it that painful. It was always over quickly. A bullet to the head is a lot quicker than stomping on someone's chest or ripping someone's heart out or warping them to ash.

I can feel Elizabeth kneel next to me and wrap her arms around me, holding me and giving me some measure of comfort. "It'll be alright, Saul."

I can't stop myself from speaking. "I've never hurt anyone like that before…I've never tortured anyone like that…I-I…I feel like a monster!"

It's never been this real before. Even on Bekenstein, killing those Eclipse, or even killing Saleon…it still felt like a game. Now…reality has an unfortunate habit of hitting you right in the hopes and dreams. I've been here two years, and only now does it seem to be hitting me. Must be some kind of record for living in denial.

"We've all done things we are ashamed of, Saul." Elizabeth says quietly. "We all have second thoughts and fears. But accepting the fear and moving past it is what makes you strong."

She pulls me to my feet and straps the mask back on. "Come on. What you need right now is sleep."

Elizabeth leads us to a sky car and drives us back to the _Ardat._ She has her arm wrapped around mine, pulling me towards the ship, and I don't even try to lead. All I feel now is weariness. Lying on my bed and slinking into sleep would be heavenly right now.

The mysterious woman pulls off the armor and the headwear on our bodies and pushes me into the bathroom, where I brush my teeth and other such things. After I'm done, Elizabeth pulls me into a hug. The absence of armor lets me feel the softness of her body, and the warmth of the gesture is doubled by the sensations.

She pushes me onto the bed. "Sleep now." She orders firmly. "We have some time before Aria finds anything, so let's just take it easy for now, alright?"

"Okay." I mumble, already feeling the world slip away for the comfort of my pillow.

It all fades to black, and my last sight is Elizabeth sitting on the chair, staring at me with an unreadable expression on her face.

…

Waking up, the first thing I notice is the warmth I'm holding onto. It wasn't there last night, from what I can remember. Opening my eyes, I find that my vision is blocked by a curtain of raven hair. I'm still fully dressed, and from what my hands can feel, so is Elizabeth, so nothing of the sexual variety happened. I'm kind of disappointed about that.

Looking at the woman in my arms, I'm kind surprised at just how tense she is when awake. Here, asleep, she looks soft and innocent. It's an odd contrast, and something I haven't noticed until now. When she's awake, she always looks like something's troubling her. Awake, she looks like a woman. Asleep, she looks like a girl.

A girl I don't want to wake up. She deserves some good sleep.

After carefully extricating myself from her grip without waking her up, I head to the bathroom to shower. Looking into the mirror, all I can see are the terrified faces of the people I killed yesterday, screaming in agony as I rip into them with my blades and biotics. The second-to-last, begging for mercy.

I've known people who got off on that sort of thing before. It gave them sort of high, knowing that they had someone at their mercy, knowing that, with a single twitch, they could end someone's life. It empowered them, made them feel like gods.

All I feel like is a bastard.

But I'm not going to let this stop me from doing what I need to do. Like Elizabeth said; I need to accept what I've done…what I will do…and move past it. Because otherwise…I'll damn trillions of people because of my conscience. The war, with the Geth, the Collectors, and the Reapers will be far from pretty. But I still have time. I've already started a chain reaction. I don't know where it'll go…but you can be damn sure I'll be there to see the end.

I turn on the sink and splash cold water on my face. There's a little girl depending on me. Time to man up, Nancy! Quit yer bitchin'.

I gulp down a few ration bars and don my armor, jacket, mask and HUD-glasses. While I'm on Omega, I might as well see Aria. This would be a pretty good time to play catch-up.

And possibly have wild sex. Some mindless animal intercourse would be just the thing right now.

The Elcor bouncer doesn't even bother to stop me or glance at his list. He just nods slightly and let's me by. It's early in the morning, and even if Omega doesn't have an artificial night and day cycle like the Citadel, people still have jobs, and people still need to sleep, even on this rock, so there aren't many customers at the bar or on the dance floor, though there are a few.

Aria is still lounging on her couch, reading a datapad. When she sees me coming up the steps, her eyes light up, and not in a warm way. It's a feral light behind those blue orbs. "Good morning to you, Malgus. Are you finally ready for that _chat_?"

I nod silently, and follow her down the steps, down some more steps and hey, down even more steps, until we get to the VIP section of The Afterlife. There are even fewer people down here, and no one looks up as Aria leads me past the dance floor, the bar and the booths, and opens a previously locked door.

The room inside is lavish, with a huge bed draped in silk sheets, trophies and weapons on the walls, rare artwork and even an Asari statue. There's a large couch with a large tv in front of it, and a few bottles on the table in between the two.

After the door closes, Aria turns to me with a smirk on her lips. "You know, when I said I wanted to talk to you, I meant in an hour, tops. I didn't expect you to go to bed." She approaches me with a sultry swing of her hips, discarding her jacket on the floor. "You left me feeling so turned on from that little show of yours that it was almost like torture waiting for you."

Her hands come up and rip the mask away, followed by the jacket, the armor and the clothes. Her hands grasp my shoulders tightly and pull me down, our lips meeting roughly.

Her clothes hit the floor, and her nails dig into my back. "Come on, big boy!" She growls, "King me!"

…

**A/N: And that's it. Some may be disappointed from lack of naughty things, but I haven't been feeling to hot lately and I wanted this chapter out.**

**Thank the spirits that stupid SOPA crap is over! I could barely stand the huge fucking influx of stories being updated to warn people about something not actually happening. Now, I just get to wait until some of favorite stories delete those stupid SOPA chapters and actually update.**

**Also, I've been looking for myself on TVtropes, and I don't have a thing on there. Looking at the people who are is kind of scary. So many good authors out there. Makes me grateful to the ones who follow me, even with my shitty update schedule. Thank you.**

**Read, Review, and Enjoy.**

**Stay Awesome.**

**~Soleneus**

**P.S.: Next chapter, we start tracking down the missing child. First stop: a ship.**

**Stay Awesome Some More.**

**~still Soleneus**


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